How to Remember Important Names in the History of Psychology

In this video I provide example mnemonics, or memory aids, for remembering important names in the history of psychology including Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener, William James, G. Stanley Hall, Mary Whiton Calkins, Margaret Floy Washburn, Sigmund Freud, and B.F. Skinner, as well as the roles they played in the development of structuralism, functionalism, psychoanalysis, and behaviorism. The suggested mnemonics can … Read More

Freudian Defense Mechanisms

In this video I describe several of the defense mechanisms theorized by Sigmund Freud and his daughter Anna Freud. These defense mechanisms provide ways of coping with anxiety, which could be reality anxiety, neurotic anxiety, or moral anxiety. While these defense mechanisms can easily be applied to everyday behaviors, literary or historical figures, or even oneself, it’s important to remember … Read More

Psychoanalysis & Freudian Personality Structure: Id, Ego, & Superego

In this video I review the fundamental ideas of psychoanalysis and the Freudian unconscious, then I describe Freud’s personality structure of the id, ego, and superego. The id is the animal drives of personality, powered by libido and operating on the pleasure principle. The ego seeks to maintain relationships and integrate into society by operating on the reality principle. The … Read More

Finding Freud’s Legacy in Neuroscience?

This is a link to an interesting article from Discover Magazine which looks at the intersection of Freudian psychoanalysis and modern-day neuroscience research. It covers quite a lot of ground along the way, considering cases of brain damage, anosognosia, Damasio’s work on emotion, Libet’s work on the experience of conscious will, and the default mode network, and manages to tie … Read More