Assess clients’ readiness and comfort with body-based work. Use trauma-informed approaches to prevent retraumatisation. Provide alternative grounding techniques for clients unable to engage in physical practices.

What is the Triangle of Conflict, and what does each point represent?

• Defenses: Protective mechanisms to avoid experiencing uncomfortable emotions (e.g., denial, repression).

• Manifestation (or Anxiety): Physiological or emotional discomfort arising when defenses are overwhelmed.

• Hidden Feelings/Impulses: Core emotions or desires that the client struggles to express.

How does the Triangle of Person guide therapeutic work?

It explores how the client’s past relationships and relational patterns affect their current relationships and interactions with the therapist, providing insight into transference and countertransference.

What role do defense mechanisms play in psychodynamic therapy?

• They help clients manage internal conflicts and reduce anxiety.

• Common defenses include projection, repression, denial, and displacement.

• Therapy aims to bring these mechanisms into awareness to help clients process underlying emotions.

Define transference and its significance in therapy.

Transference occurs when clients project feelings, expectations, or relational patterns from past relationships onto the therapist. It provides insight into unresolved conflicts and relational dynamics.

What is countertransference, and how should therapists manage it?

Countertransference involves the therapist’s emotional reactions to the client, influenced by their own unconscious processes. Therapists manage it by:

• Maintaining self-awareness through supervision.

• Exploring their reactions to understand the client’s relational patterns.

How does psychodynamic case formulation differ from other approaches?

• Focuses on the client’s developmental history, relational patterns, and unconscious conflicts.

• Uses frameworks like Malan’s Triangles to link symptoms to underlying emotional dynamics.

• Prioritizes understanding the client’s subjective experience over symptom categorization.

What are the key goals of psychodynamic therapy?

• Increase insight into unconscious processes and relational patterns.

• Resolve internal conflicts contributing to emotional distress.

• Foster healthier relational dynamics by working through transference.

How is psychodynamic therapy applied to trauma?

• Focuses on processing the emotional impact of traumatic experiences.

• Helps clients understand how trauma influences current relational patterns.

• Uses the therapeutic relationship to rebuild trust and emotional safety.

What are common critiques of psychodynamic therapy?

• Lack of empirical evidence compared to more structured approaches like CBT.

• Time-intensive nature, making it less accessible for clients seeking short-term solutions.

• Potential for overemphasis on early childhood experiences while overlooking current stressors.

How can psychodynamic therapy address these critiques?

• Integrate brief psychodynamic interventions for short-term treatment.

• Use contemporary approaches (e.g., relational or attachment-focused therapy) to address both past and present experiences.

• Combine psychodynamic insights with evidence-based techniques like mindfulness

How did Freud conceptualize the unconscious?

Freud viewed the unconscious as a reservoir of repressed desires, memories, and conflicts that influence thoughts, emotions, and behavior. These unconscious elements manifest through dreams, slips of the tongue, and neurotic symptoms.

What are Freud’s primary structures of the psyche?

• Id: The instinctual, pleasure-driven part of the psyche.

• Ego: The rational, reality-oriented mediator between the Id and the Superego.

• Superego: The moral conscience shaped by societal and parental expectations

What role do defense mechanisms play in Freud’s theory?

Defense mechanisms protect the ego by managing internal conflicts between the Id, Superego, and external reality. Examples include repression, projection, denial, and displacement.

How did Freud view early childhood in the development of the psyche?

• Freud believed early childhood experiences profoundly shape personality and unconscious conflicts.

• Fixation at any psychosexual stage (oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital) can lead to unresolved conflicts manifesting in adulthood.

How did Klein expand on Freud’s concept of the unconscious?

• Klein emphasized early object relations, focusing on how infants internalize relationships with primary caregivers (objects).

• She proposed that unconscious fantasies are shaped by these internalized “good” and “bad” objects.

What is the significance of “splitting” in Klein’s theory?

• Splitting is a defense mechanism where the infant views objects (e.g., caregivers) as either entirely good or entirely bad.

• This binary perception helps the infant manage overwhelming emotions but can lead to difficulties in integrating complex relational dynamics later in life.

How did Klein view play therapy

• Klein pioneered play therapy as a method to access children’s unconscious thoughts and fantasies.

• Through observing and interpreting play, she explored children’s relationships with internalized objects and unresolved conflicts.

What is the Triangle of Person in Malan’s psychodynamic framework?

The Triangle of Person links three relational contexts:

1. Current Relationships: How the client interacts with people in their present life (e.g., friends, partners).

2. Past Relationships: Unresolved dynamics or patterns from early relationships, especially with caregivers.

3. Therapeutic Relationship: The client’s transference onto the therapist and the therapist’s countertransference.

How does the Triangle of Person guide therapeutic work?

• Identifies recurring relational patterns across past, present, and therapy relationships.

• Explores how unresolved conflicts in past relationships manifest in the client’s current life and the therapeutic dynamic.

• Uses the therapeutic relationship as a safe space to process and resolve these patterns.

What is the Paranoid-Schizoid Position in Klein’s theory?

• An early developmental stage where infants split experiences into "good" and "bad" objects to manage anxiety.

• This splitting helps the infant cope with the overwhelming emotions of dependency and frustration.

• Example: A caregiver is experienced as entirely "good" when satisfying the infant’s needs and entirely "bad" when failing to do so.

What are the key features of the Paranoid-Schizoid Position?

• Splitting: Separating “good” and “bad” objects to protect against confusion and anxiety.

• Projection: Attributing intolerable feelings (e.g., anger, fear) onto external objects or people.

• Paranoia: Fear of persecution from the “bad” object.

• Idealization: Viewing the “good” object as perfect and entirely benevolent.

How is the Paranoid-Schizoid Position resolved?

Resolution occurs as the infant develops the capacity to integrate both “good” and “bad” aspects of objects, transitioning to the Depressive Position.

What is the Depressive Position in Klein’s theory?

• A later developmental stage where the infant begins to integrate the “good” and “bad” aspects of objects.

• This integration leads to feelings of guilt and concern for the well-being of the object, as the infant realizes they can harm their caregiver emotionally through anger or frustration.

What are the key features of the Depressive Position?

• Integration: Recognizing that objects can be both “good” and “bad.”

• Guilt: Feeling remorse for aggressive or angry impulses directed at loved ones.

• Reparation: Desire to repair the relationship with the object (e.g., the caregiver) after experiencing guilt.

• Empathy: Developing concern and care for the well-being of others.

How is the Depressive Position significant for emotional development?

It marks a shift toward greater emotional maturity, allowing the individual to tolerate ambivalence in relationships and develop empathy, guilt, and responsibility