Psychodynamic Approach

assumptions

1. the unconscious mind drives everything

2. conflict/child experience causes our behaviour

3. should only study individuals (everyone has unique experiences)

'the interpretation of dreams' - sigmund freud

• discussed the concept of the unconscious

• had a theory that the mind is divided into the conscious and unconscious

• trauma is buried in the unconscious

• can only access unconscious in dreams

• symbols/metaphors are for real unconscious thought

what is the iceberg model made up of?

id, ego and super ego

id

• pleasure principle

• impulsive animal drives

• selfish and demands gratification

ego

• reality principle

• mediator of balance

• balances drives, morality and reality

super ego

• morality principle

• sense of right and wrong

• based on same sex parents morality and uses guilt to influence ego

para praxis (freudian slip)

• slip of the tongue

• your preconscious gets out

eros

• the id has drives for hunger, power, love... (all part of eros)

• the life force the unconsciously drives behaviour

libido

• everything that could be included in the concept of 'love'

• one of these drives

• NOT focused on sex

how does sex link to the id?

• freud's focus on sex is apocryphal

• sex is just a part of the pleasure principle

stages of psycho sexual development

1. Oral Stage

2. Anal Stage

3. Phallic Stage

4. Latency Stage

5. Genital Stage

oral (psycho sexual development) age range

birth -> 1 year

oral (psycho sexual development)

born focused on oral pleasure, has no patience or compromise

anal (psycho sexual development) age range

1 -> 3 years

anal (psycho sexual development)

• formation of ego

• potty training requires compromise

• until this point the id rules and the child simply demands

• potty training forces child to deal with the world around them and control id

phallic (psycho sexual development) age range

3 -> 6 years

phallic (psycho sexual development)

• formation of super ego

• copy our same sex parents super ego

• freud argued that the root of super ego development was fear caused by unconsciously desiring the power of the father

phallic - men (psycho sexual development)

• oedipus complex

• desiring the power of the father*

• castration anxiety*

• develop super ego*

desiring the power of the father* (oedipus complex)

• boy starts to unconsciously desire the father position of power

• causes him anxiety as he fears his father sees him as a threat

castration anxiety* (oedipus complex)

• to young children, women are men who have 'lost' their penises

• child fears father will sense their desire for power and unconsciously remove the sons ability to take his place by turning him into a woman

develop super ego* (oedipus complex)

to avoid this confrontation and help relate to their father they imitate their father - absorbing their superego and creating a 'normal heterosexual male behaviour set'

if you don't take your fathers super ego becoming a 'normal heterosexual male behaviour set' what happens?

you absorb your mothers super ego and that makes you homosexual and not normal

phallic - women (psycho sexual development)

• desiring the power of the father*

• penis envy*

• develop super ego*

desiring the power of the father* (women)

• freud argued females go through oedipus complex in a different way

• competition, castration anxiety and resultant acceptance of their fathers super ego is not an option

penis envy* (women)

• young children think women are men who have 'lost' their penises

• they can't get them back => denied access to being a man => restricted to subservient powerless role of a woman (all women are angry they can't be their father)

develop super ego* (women)

• can't be father so daughter and mother's relationship changes from being loving to competitive for fathers attention

• to avoid confrontation (and loss of mothers love) they imitate mothers super ego creating a 'normal heterosexual female behaviour set' (emulate (copy) her so she can't 'get rid' of you)

latency (psycho sexual development) age range

6 years -> puberty

latency (psycho sexual development)

generally considered a time where personality settles

genital (psycho sexual development) age range

adulthood

genital (psycho sexual development)

mature sexual interests surface

conflict

each stage involves conflict that the child has to resolve in learning to deal with reality

fixations

• occur when a conflict can't be resolved

• they are buried by the ego and leave unconscious psychological scars

regression

later in life fixation scars can resurface and we unconsciously regress to when the conflict happened (can cause mental issues)

oral fixations

orally agressive: chewing gum/ends of pencils
orally passive: smoking, eating, kissing
may result in a passive, immature relationship

anal fixation

anal retentive: obsessively organised/neat
anal expulsive: reckless, careless, defiant, disorganised

phallic male fixations

• narcissistic and reckless

• sexually anxious, inadequate

• sexual deviancy (not normal sex)

phallic female fixations

• over confident sexualised manipulative female

• submissive accepting female (no personality yet)

• sexual deviancy (not normal sex)

defence mechanisms

• help deal with our fixations and continue with our development

• protect your ego from extreme situations

repression

pushing feelings/memories into unconsciousness (e.g. causing gaps in memory and physically can't remember it)

sublimate

repressed feelings on certain topics are projected on to others

displacement

transfer feelings onto a substitute target (e.g. being horrible to your partner because you're stressed at work)

denial

denying reality even in the face of evidence (e.g. telling yourself that a bad situation didn't happen so you don't have to face it - refusing to accept a childhood trauma

Anna O

• experiences anxiety and neurological impairment (tics)

• freud claimed it was due to repression of anxiety over the care of her dying father -> didn't want father to see her anxiety so repressed it

Little Hans

• has fear of horses

• freud said it was displaced fear of the father

• fear of father is not allowed (not part of super ego) hans displaced onto more acceptable target (horse)

evaluation - real world application (strength)

• introduced the idea of psychotherapy

• brought psychoanalysis to the world

• first attempt to treat medical disorders psychologically

• new range of techniques to access the unconscious (dream analysis)

psychoanalysis

• claims to help bring repressed emotions to the conscious mind to be dealt with

• forerunner for modern talking therapies

evaluation - counterpoint of real world application (limitation)

• helps clients with mild neuroses

• dangerous for those with severe mental conditions (e.g. schizophrenia)

• doesn't apply to all disorders (some people may not be able to express their experiences)

evaluation - explanatory power (strength)

• explains human behaviour

• huge influence on psychology and contemporary thought

• key force for first half of 21st century

• explains wide range of phenomena (personality development, origins of psychological disorders, moral development and gender identity)

• draws connection between childhood experiences, relationship with parents and our later development

evaluation - unstable concepts (limitations)

• untestable (no way of testing it)

• karl popper argued that this approach doesn't meet scientific criterion of falsification

• not open to empirical test

• individual experiments

• concepts occur at an unconscious level

• ideas were based on a subjective study of individuals

evaluation psychic determinism

• approach suggests our behaviour is determined by unconscious conflicts in our childhood

• freud doesn’t believe in accidents so a 'slip of the tongue' is driven by unconscious forces and has deeper meanings

evaluation - catch 22

• freud is hard to criticise as he claims that for treatment to work the patients must gain insight (understanding) of the negative energy caused by the fixation can't be released, removing the mental illness (catharsis)

• if treatment didn't work you simply did not understand what the therapist was saying

• his theory works as it can't be proved wrong