Fundamental Attribution Error
Suppose you see a person on the road walking in a hurry and may assume that he is an irresponsible person or has an impatient personality. However, in reality the person may be in a hurry because he is late, not because he is characteristically impatient.
Actor-Observer Bias
You are late for a meeting and blame yourself for external factors such as traffic jams or your cell phone alarm not going off. But when someone else is late, you may think they are late because they were not punctual or didn’t pay enough attention to the meeting.
Self-Serving Bias
If you get a high score on a test, you might think it’s because you studied hard or you’re very smart; but if you don’t do well on the test, you might blame it on the test questions being too hard or the test environment being poor.
Psychoanalysis
Clemens is a man in his 40s who appears very successful in his career, with a happy family and a stable life. However, despite outward appearances, Clemens feels anxious and uneasy inside. For many years, he has suffered from sleep disturbances and frequent feelings of fear and depression, especially before going to sleep. He experiences intense anxiety at night and feels like an uncontrollable threat is looming over him. Although he knows these fears are irrational, he cannot shake them. During the day, his emotions fluctuate, but there are no clear triggers for these emotional shifts.
Symptoms: Clemens’ main symptoms are severe insomnia and recurring feelings of fear. He often experiences strong anxiety before bed, as if some threat is looming over him, though he knows it’s illogical. He feels disconnected from his surroundings, and this fear intensifies in the evening. Despite his successful career, he struggles with his emotional well-being.
Family Background and Emotional Suppression: Through the analysis, the therapist discovered that Clemens’ father was emotionally distant and rarely engaged in deep emotional communication with him. Clemens had always longed for his father’s approval and attention but never received true emotional support. His mother, on the other hand, was emotionally dependent and overly focused on Clemens’ life, creating a dynamic in which he felt suffocated by her affection. This emotional dependency resulted in Clemens experiencing significant emotional struggles as he grew up.
Unconscious Conflict: Clemens’ sleep disturbances and anxiety symptoms were found to be a result of repressed anger towards his father’s coldness and an inability to deal with his mother’s emotional dependency. Deep within his unconscious, his unresolved dissatisfaction with his parents and emotional needs had become a source of anxiety. This emotional conflict manifested as a fear of intimacy, especially when Clemens needed emotional support in his own life, which made him feel profoundly uneasy.
Releasing Unconscious Conflicts and Emotional Integration: Through exploring these unresolved emotional issues, Clemens began to gradually release his anger and disappointment towards his parents. He learned to express his true feelings and started to eliminate his fear of intimacy. Over time, through psychoanalytic work, he not only understood the source of his anxiety but also learned how to face his past trauma and rebuild a healthier emotional pattern.