Ps-Q

Pseudo-Hermaphrodites: the congenital condition of having the organs of reproduction of one sex and the external genitalia (usually malformed) of the opposite sex .

Psyche: the mind functioning as the centre of thought, emotion and behaviourism and consciously or unconsciously adjusting or mediating the body's responses to the social and physical environment. The spirit or soul - that which is responsible for one's thoughts and feelings; the seat of the faculty of reason.

Psychiatry: the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness by a medically-trained person (as opposed to a psychologist).

Psycho-Physical Parallelism: the theory that the conscious and nervous processes vary concomitantly whether or not there be any causal connection between them. In other words, that modifications of consciousness emerge contemporaneously with corresponding modifications of nervous process.

Psychoanalysis: the precise meaning of this word can vary according to use - ie:

• the method of psychological therapy originated by Sigmund Freud (1920, 1923) in which free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance/transference are used to explore repressed or unconscious impulses, anxieties and internal conflicts, in order to free psychic energy for mature love and work.
• b. The theory of personality developed by Freud that focuses on repression and unconscious forces and includes the concepts of infantile sexuality, resistance, transference and division of the psyche into the id, ego, and superego.

Psychoanalytic Theory: the cohesive set of models developed by Sigmund Freud (1905, 1926), arguably the greatest and most intuitive psychologist ever!. He saw the mind as having 3 components:-

• Id: this comprises the innate sexual and aggressive instincts, works on the 'pleasure principle' and requires immediate gratification
• Ego: the conscious, rational element which works on the 'reality principle' and takes into account the environment - note: this is a different meaning to ego as ‘self’
• Superego: effectively conscience and the sense of morality

Freud charts the sequential development of these 3 components during childhood over 5 sequential 'psychosexual' stages:-

• Oral: satisfaction is obtained from eating, sucking, etc (0-18 months)
• Anal: the challenge of toilet training places emphasis on the anal region (18-36 months)
• Phallic: the discovery of pleasure in the genitals (3-6 years)
• Latent: the phase when boys and girls spend little time with each other (6 years to puberty)
• Genital: the onset of sexual activity as a key source of pleasure (puberty onwards)

Over- or under-gratification at each stage can lead to 'psychosexual fixations' to which people may regress in later life in stressful conditions. Such stress can be caused by the failure of the Ego to resolve conflicts between the Id and the Superego. To protect itself, the Ego has a number of 'defence mechanisms' - such as:-

• Repression: where threatening thoughts are kept out of consciousness
• Displacement: unconsciously moving impulses away from a threatening object to a less threatening object - the 'kicking the cat' syndrome
• Projection: the attribution of one's own undesirable characteristics to another
• Denial: the refusal to accept the existence or reality of a threatening event
• Intellectualisation: the de-emotionalisation of a threatening event by thinking logically/rationally about it

In Integrated SocioPsychology the ego defence mechanisms are termed selfplex defence mechanisms to avoid the confusion caused the term ‘ego’.

The above is a very basic description of the key Freudian concepts. He created a considerable volume of works describing, developing and elaborating on these ideas and putting forward his own case histories Psychoanalysis as a means to resolve the conflicts and fixations he identified. (The principal work on defence mechanisms was documented by his daughter, Anna, in 1936)
Freud's core concepts were developed in Victorian times and, in the modern 'sexually-enlightened' age, his emphasis on issues to do with sex can seem a little quaint - obsessive, even! Yet for all the attempts to debunk Psychoanalytic Theory - especially by psychologists supporting Behaviourism - Freud remains a seminal figure in the development of Psychology. His Id can be seen as typifying the self-expressive side in Spiral Dynamics - especially the RED vMEME - while the development from Ego to Superego represents the conforming/self-sacrificing elements of the Spiral.

Psychodynamic Theory: an approach that emphasises the processes of change and development, with Dynamics being what drive us to behave in particular ways. The Psychoanalytic Theory of Sigmund Freud was the first Psychodynamic Theory of modern Psychology and underpins to some degree or other almost all Psychodynamic approaches developed since.

Ostensibly Psychodynamic might seem very similar in concept to Cognitive-Developmental; but, in practice, the two approaches are usually very different.

Cognitive Developmental tends to focus on how the mind works - eg: memory, attention, perception, intelligence and - and tends to be based on hard, experimental research. Psychodynamic, on the other hand, has an emphasis on motivation and morality and is often based on observation and inference. That said, Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development (1963) is often considered a Cognitive-Developmental theory. The Graves Model (19760) and its Spiral Dynamics build (1996) can be seen as both Cognitive-Developmental and Psychodynamic.

Psychology: there have been several attempts at producing an adequate definition over the years. One which seems to be currently very much in vogue is 'the science of mind, behaviour and experience'.

Psychometric: the measuring of 'things psychological' - such as intelligence, aptitudes, personality (temperament), etc.

Psychopathology: the study of mental illness, mental distress and abnormal, maladaptive behaviour. The term is most commonly used within Psychiatry where ‘pathology’ refers to disease processes. Abnormal Psychology is a similar term used more frequently in the non-medical field of Psychology.

Psychosis: a severe mental condition where the patient has lost touch with reality and lacks insight into their condition - eg: Schizophrenia. The term 'psychosis' remains in use even though the distinction between it and neurosis has been dropped from the major Psychiatry classification systems.

Psychosurgery: a collaboration between psychiatrists and neurosurgeons. During the operation, which is carried out under a general anaesthetic and using stereotactic methods, a small piece of brain is destroyed or removed. The most common types of psychosurgery in current or recent use are capsulotomy, cingulotomy, subcaudate tractotomy and limbic leucotomy. Lesions are made by radiation, thermo-coagulation, freezing or cutting. About a third of patients show significant improvement in their symptoms after operation. Advances in surgical technique have greatly reduced the incidence of death and serious damage from psychosurgery; the remaining risks include seizures, incontinence, decreased drive and initiative, weight gain, and cognitive and affective problems.

Psychotherapy: a psychological (as opposed to medical) treatment of mental or emotional problems.

Psychoticism: the third of Hans J Eysenck's Dimensions of Temperament is attributed to the levels of testosterone in the body and, therefore, has a biological sex attribution to it. Men will tend to be more 'Psychoticist' while women will tend towards the other end of the scale, Impulse Control. Usually.