Psychodynamic Perspectives and Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

Psychodynamic Perspectives

  • Definition: The notion that personality is a function of internal processes and conflicts over which individuals have little or no conscious awareness or personal control.

Freud's Psychoanalytic Perspective

  • Overview: Freud's model of the mind is referred to as the iceberg model, which consists of three regions: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious.

Iceberg Model of the Mind

  • Conscious Mind

    • Description: The tip of the iceberg represents the conscious mind.

    • Characteristics: Involves mental activities that the individual is consciously aware of at any given moment.

  • Preconscious Mind

    • Description: The preconscious mind is slightly underwater.

    • Characteristics: Contains mental information that the individual may not be currently thinking about but can easily access when needed.

    • Example: A memory (like a kiss) can be retrieved from the preconscious mind when needed and returned once done.

  • Unconscious Mind

    • Description: The largest part of the iceberg and located underwater.

    • Characteristics: We are not aware of this part, but it still affects our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

    • Function: It serves as a seemingly unlimited storage facility containing thoughts, feelings, memories, needs, desires, wishes, and past experiences that are considered too threatening to be conscious.

    • Importance: To understand personality, it is essential to expose and gain access to the content of the unconscious mind.

    • Implications: Failure to express unconscious content may lead to a buildup of pressure, potentially resulting in hysterical reactions, such as paralysis of the legs.

Techniques for Accessing the Unconscious Mind

  • Direct Observation: Freud noted that observing the information from the unconscious mind directly is not possible because its contents are disguised.

  • Hypnosis:

    • Initial Technique: Freud began with hypnosis to relax the mind and reduce mental disguises.

  • Free Association:

    • Definition: A method where an individual is required to say whatever comes to their mind without filtering based on relevance or threatening nature.

    • Assumption: Freud assumed that associations in the unconscious are linked emotionally, and analyzing these connections would reveal their true meanings as expressions of psychological trauma.

  • Dream Analysis:

    • Significance: Considered the most important technique for examining unconscious clues.

    • Notion: Studying dreams is essential to understanding personality because "the interpretation of dreams is the royal road to knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind."

    • Manifest Content:

    • Definition: The part of the dream that the dreamer remembers and represents the disguised content.

    • Latent Content:

    • Definition: The underlying meaning of the dream, reflecting the person's true feelings, needs, and desires.

Summary

  • Freud's psychodynamic perspective emphasizes the importance of the unconscious mind and its influence on personality, employing various methods to access unconscious content, primarily through free association and dream analysis.