The psychodynamic approach

what is the psychodynamic approach?

unconscious conflict between the 3 parts of the personality and the impact of trauma at key stages in childhood

what is the unconscious

a vast reservoir of often inaccessible and frequently hard to tolerate thoughts, feelings, desires and memories, many of which were formed in childhood traumatic experiences

what are the key assumptions?

1. The unconscious mind shapes who we are and what we do the mind actively prevents traumatic memories from the unconscious from reaching conscious awareness

2. The structure of personality

3. defence mechanisms

4. Trauma during any of the psychosexual stages of development during childhood will lead to related abnormal behaviour in later life

what was Freud’s description of the structure of personality?

A small portion of personality is conscious and some is ‘preconscious’ (i.e. normally hidden but accessible indirectly e.g. in dreams) – EGO and SUPEREGO

define libido?

sexual energy

what is the ID?

• Selfish, childlike instincts and libido seeking instant gratification and pleasure

• known as the pleasure principle

• operates solely in the unconscious

what is the EGO?

• Rational, adult part of personality – has to compromise and find a way to balance the demands of ID and SUPEREGO

• known as the reality principle

what is the superego?

• Guilt and conscience, based on our own ‘ego ideal’ and our Internalisation of societal rules

• known as the morality principle

what are the 3 personalities?

1. ID

2. EGO

3. SUPEREGO

what are the defence mechanisms?

1. Denial

2. Displacement

3. Repression

4. Regression

5. Projection

6. Reaction Formation

7. Rationalisation

define denial

refuse to believe reality person act as if the traumatic event had happened

define displacement

Take frustration out on an innocent target (might be an object or person)

feels unable to express the feelings

define repression

Forget it ever happened

refers to the unconscious blocking unacceptable thoughts and impulses

define regression

go back to being a child (a time when you felt safe)

define projection

Hate in others what I really hate in myself

define reaction formation

Behave in the complete opposite to my true feeling

define rationalisation

justify what happened

what are the key defence mechanisms?

1. repressions

2. displacement

3. denial

what are defence mechanisms used for!

a way of distorting reality so we can cope

what are the psychosexual stages?

1. oral stage (0-2yrs)

2. anal stage (2-3yrs)

3. phallic stage (3-6yrs)

4. latent stage (6-12yrs)

5. genital stage (12+yrs)

what is the oral stage?

• Oral fixation

• pleasure from sucking, eating, vocalising

• where the ID develops

• The mouth is the focal point of sensation

what is the anal stage?

• anal retentive

• pleasure from holding or letting go of faeces major issue at the stage is toilet training as the child learn to control the impulsion of bodily waste

• beginnings of ego development

what is the phallic phase?

• Oedipus/electra complex male child unconsciously wishes to possess their mother and get rid of their father

• castration anxiety/penis envy

• pleasure from touching genitals

• where the EGO develops

what is the latent stage?

• moral development internalising same-sex parent’s and society’s morals and values

• where the SUPEREGO develops

• no particular fixations/ pleasure

what is the genital stage?

• pleasure from heterosexual attraction and sex

• Fully Formed 3-part Adult Personality

how do we resolve conflicting thoughts, urges and feelings?

• phallic symbols (things that symbolise genitals

• dreams, fantasies

• freudian slips (of the tongue)

what are the strengths to this approach?

• Potential for psychological (not just biological) treatments for mental disorders: enables the client to examine unresolved conflicts and symptoms that arise from past dysfunctional relationships and manifest themselves in the need and desire to abuse substances.

• Recognises the influence of childhood experiences on later behaviour

• Theory has face validity - measures what it claims to

what are some of the limitations of this approach?

• Gender biased (androcentric): alpha bias (men are superior); ill-formed theory as Freud admits it doesn’t explain female development well

• No predictive validity – does not predict future behaviour

• uses case studies as evidence the approach does not use controlled experiments to collect evidence, so is considered less scientific also cant be generalised

define psychoanalysis

A term used to describe the personality theory and therapy associated with Sigmund Freud

define what defence mechanisms are

• unconscious strategies that protect our conscious mind from anxiety

• defence mechanisms involves distortion of reality in someway so that we are better able to cope with a situation