psychodynamic approach

introduction

The psychodynamic approach assumes that early childhood psychological development is important in shaping who we are. Conflicts that occur in our unconscious minds can lead to behavioural issues and disorders.

Basic assumptions:

• Unconscious mind and the Structure of personality

• Defence mechanisms

• Psychosexual stages

the unconscious mind

Freud used the iceberg format to explain the mind.

• Conscious mind — visible to everyone

• Preconscious mind — not visible but is made up of thoughts that can surface at anytime

• Unconscious mind — not visible and we don’t know what lies beneath

structure of personality

• The Id — impulsive, pleasure-seeking, innate

• The Ego — mediator/balance between the two

• The Superego — morals, conscience that is learnt through childhood

If Ego fails to balance the demands between Id and Superego, then conflicts can arise that cause psychological disorders to develop.

• If Id isn’t kept in check, person will act on impulses and immediate desires, which would result in destructive and inhibited behaviour.

• If Superego isn’t kept in check, person will deprive themselves of desires even if they are socially acceptable, resulting in anxious and OCD behaviours.

defence mechanisms

To cope with conflicts of the mind, we use defence mechanisms — unconscious strategies used to protect the ego from distorting reality.

• Repression — pushing unwanted experience out of your unconscious

  • For example, not being able to remember being fired

• Denial — refusing to believe something has happened

  • For example, turning up to work because you can’t accept you were fired

• Displacement — transferring your negative emotions onto something which will have less negative consequences for you

  • For example, punching a wall instead of your boss

Defence mechanisms are maladaptive solutions (don’t resolve conflict), excessive use of defences results in neuroses.

psychosexual stages

The stages in development that everyone goes through from birth-adult to shape our personality. The underlying unconscious drive is sexual pleasure that builds up and needs to be relieved. Each stage is characterised by demands of sexual gratification and different ways of achieving it. If issues arise at any stages, this will affect adult personality.

Oral stage (0-18 months):

• Libido is oral satisfaction (putting things in mouth)

  • Fixation can cause habits like smoking, over-eating, pen chewing

• Passive stage (pre-teething)

  • Fixation can cause dependant, weak and gullible personality

• Aggressive stage (after teething)

  • Fixation can cause verbally aggressive and mean personality

Anal stage (18 months-3 years):

• Libido is anal satisfaction (potty training)

  • Anally expulsive personality — parents are too lenient and don’t push you, disorganised and emotional personality

  • Anally retentive personality — parents are too strict or trained too early, tight with money and obsessive or obedient personality

Phallic stage (3 years-6 years):

• Libido is obsession with genitals and the difference between males and females

• Stage where girls realise they are future mothers and boys realise they are future providers

• Boys experience Oedipus complex and girls experience Electra complex

  • Oedipus complex

    • Boy develops sexual desire for his mother and wants to possess her, he worries that his father will find out and has castrration anxiety

    • Anxiety is resolved by imitating/joining in on masculine behaviours of father (identification), this resolves the conflict

    • In single parent household, boy can’t identify with dad so the conflict can’t be resolved, leads to homosexuality and sexual inappropriateness in adulthood

  • Electra complex:

    • Girl unconsciously cultivates a sexual desire for her father and sees mother as competitor that caused her to be ‘castrated’

    • ‘Penis envy’ is only resolved by replacing yearning for penis with yearning for a baby

    • Girl can resolve the tension and overcome the attraction by identifying with her mother and adopting traditional female role (dolls, dressing up ect.)

Latent stage (6 years-puberty):

• Latent period for exploration, where sexual energy is repressed/dormant and sublimated into other areas like intellectual pursuits and social interaction

• Development of social skills, self confidence and Superego (values, relationships)

• Getting stuck in latent stage will lead to immaturity, isolation and inadequacy

Genital stage (puberty-death):

• Libido is a strong sexual interest in opposite sex

• Ego and Superego are fully formed and teens are able to balance basic urges with conforming to reality and norms

little Hans case study

Background:

• Hans, called Hebert Graf, was the son of Freud’s friend Max Graf

• He had a phobia of horses

• His father documented what his son said and did in detail and passes on letters to Freud to interpret

• Freud analysed his behaviour and dreams as a problem occurring within the phallic stage

Key features of analysis:

• Hans had a preoccupation with his ‘widdler' (evidence for being in phallic stage) and comparing it to other animals

• He had a fear of castration (evidence of OC) as his dad once threatened to chop it off

• Freud said Hans had displaced fear of his father (and his large penis) onto horses/giraffes, which is why he had a phobia (evidence of defence mechanisms)

• Hans also showed jealousy of his sister Hannah for getting their mother’s attention (evidence of OC)

Weaknesses of the study — more reasonable explanation of phobia (saw horse and carriage fall over when he was younger), unrepresentative as it is a case study, biased (Freud interpreted it in a way that showed his theories were right), Freud got all his info from Hans’ dad’s writing and only had 1 session with him, so he didn’t have a first hand perspective, unethical (he was unaware it was written about him).