Psychodynamic approaches

Psychodynamic approach

• Emphasises the role of internal mental processes and early childhood experiences

• Based on the belief that personality and psychological disorders are the outcome of dynamic interaction among mental structures

• Psychopathology results from unconscious conflicts in the individual

According to freud the human mind consists of three parts

• The conscious mind

• The pre-conscious mind- stored info recallable to consciousness

• The unconscious mind- a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories

Structural model of the psyche

Id

• Most primitive structure

• Source of instinctual drives

• Operates on the pleasure principle, desire for immediate gratification

• Characterised by the primary process thinking unconstrained by rationality

Ego

• Operates on the reality principle- it mediates between the Id and the external world, and between Id and superego

• Characterised by secondary process thinking developing strategies for solving problems and obtaining satisfaction

• Known as the executive branch

Superego

• Known as judicial branch, operates on the morality principle

• Conscience-internalised taboos and values of society

Compromise formation

• Finding balance between the key demands of motivation, morality, and practicality

freud- anxiety

• Freud thought anxiety plays a casual role in most forms of psychopathology

Objective anxiety

• Fear of danger from real world

Neurotic anxiety

• Fear that instincts will get out of hand and cause you to do something which you will be punished for

Moral anxiety

• Fear of your own conscience

defence mechanisms

• Soothe anxiety - can be healthy and adaptive, or dysfunctional

examples include-

• Repression- blocks threatening material (impulses, ideas, memories) from consciousness e.g. adult not recalling being abused as a child

• Displacement- discharging pent-up feelings on safer targets than those arousing the feelings e.g. an adult being reprimanded by his boss will go home and yell at his family

• Projection- attributing one’s own unacceptable impulses or actions to another e.g. Stalin was paranoid neighbouring countries were planning to invade

• Compensation- making up for feelings of inferiority by developing other desirable qualities

• Humour- dealing with unpleasant ideas and situations with wit and self-deprecation

• Undoing- a repetitive action that symbolically atones for an unacceptable impulse or behaviour e.g. repeated hand washing after maybe murder

Stages of psychosexual development

• The emergence of the ego and superego are associated with five stages in personality development

1. The Oral stage (from birth to 18 months )

• Erogenous zone- mouth, lips, and tongue

• Sucking, swallowing, exploring objects with the mouth

• Key conflict- dependency on others

• Fixated- alcoholism, eating disorders, smoking

2. The anal stage (18 months to 3 years)

• Erogenous zone- bowel and bladder

• Obtain pleasure from expelling or retaining faeces

• Key conflict- issues of self control

• Fixated- anal-retentive- organised, rigid, obsessive-compulsive

• Fixated- anal-expulsive - disorganised, messy, overly generous

3. The phallic stage ( 3 years to 6 years)

• Erogenous zone- genitals

• Key conflict- castration anxiety, penis envy

• Sexual desire for opposite sex parent and desire to eliminate same sex parent

• resolution= identification with same sex parent and development of superego

Displacement and phobias

• Phobias result when unconscious anxiety is displaced onto a neutral or symbolic object (Freud, 1909)

little hans- important study for displacement and phobias

• Little Hans”- developed a horse phobia after seeing a horse fall to the ground and writhe around violently

• Freud- Hans oedipal fears of his father became unbearable and were displaced onto horses

• Hans had sexual feelings towards his mother and believed his father was going to castrate him as punishment

• Horses were particularly suitable father-symbols because of their large penises

4. The latent stage (6 years to puberty)

• Sexual motivations are channelled (sublimated) into age appropriate interests and activities, such as sports and hobbies

5. The genital stage (puberty to death)

• Individuals are driven by two basic motivation forces, sex, and aggression

• Healthy individuals release this energy through socially appropriate channels- sexual intercourse, sports, career progression, etc

Psychoanalytic therapy

• Goal- insight- bringing unconscious materials into conscious awareness

• Freud- insight is sufficient for curing psychological disorder

• Controversial opinion- reliving traumatic experiences can

tools for therapy method

• Interpretation- suggesting hidden meaning to patients account of their lives

• Must overcome resistance of patients during interpretation- patients defy and oppose the interpretations of the analyst because of the unpleasant truths

• Neutrality- maintaining a distant stance to minimise the therapist’s personal influence

Transference

patients transfer their feelings about people in their life onto the analyst

• Idealisation- you are the best

• Invitation rescue

• Acting helpless

• Seeking approval

countertransference

where their own feelings influence their response

• Inappropriately intense response

• Preoccupation

• Loss of objectivity

• Rescue fantasy

Free association

• The client verbalises whatever comes to mind without editing or censoring the stream of thought

• The goal is to reveal aspects of the unconscious mind – unconscious desires

Slips of the tongue

The little accidents that occur in daily life are often expressions of the motivated unconscious

• Nothing actually happens by accident – There is a reason behind every act, thought, feeling

• This is called psychic determinism

Interpretation of dreams

• According to Freud, dream analysis is the royal road to the unconscious

• When awake, aggressive and sexual impulses are censored by the Ego

EVALUATING THE PSYCHODYNAMIC MODEL- influence

• First model to highlight the unconscious.

• Influenced attachment theory, developmental psychology, and therapy.

• Origin of talking cure.First model to highlight the unconscious.

criticism

• Unfalsifiable: Cannot be empirically tested

• Unparsimonious: Overcomplicates simple phenomena

• Replication crisis: Theories not empirically supported

Other Issues

• Sexism: Freud portrayed women as inferior (e.g., penis envy).

  • Feminist critiques: reflects societal oppression, not biology.

• Overemphasis on sex: Later theorists reduced this focus.

• Therapeutic neutrality: Distance between therapist and client challenged by evidence on the importance of therapeutic alliance.

• Prohibitive costs: Requires long-term, frequent sessions → inaccessible to many.