Mental Health Issues and the Psychodynamic Approach Essay

The psychodynamic approach focuses on individuals who behave in a certain way due to having emotional feelings buried deep inside their unconscious mind. The theory was developed by Sigmund Freud who was a psychologist. The use of the psychodynamic approach within health and social care helps individuals understand and support patients who are undergoing the psychodynamic process as it is generally used around the world. This essay aims to show my understanding of the approach and the ways health and social care workers could apply the theory to a health and social care setting. By explaining what psychodynamic counselling is and how it helps individuals it shows how I am able to identify the solutions to the problems.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (PP) rooted from traditional psychoanalysis theories. PP operates with the basic assumption that focuses on unconscious processes that recognise how a person’s behaviour and feelings in the present are rooted from childhood experience in the past. The objective of PP is to facilitate client to reach self-awareness and to have a better understanding of the problems by identifying where the origin of the issue as well as underlying causes that may be present. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy places heavy emphasis on client’s relationships and interpersonal experience (Shedler, 2010).

Although, psychodynamic therapy seems legitimate when it states in depth that a person’s actions are based off his or her subconscious mind, a person’s free will or attitude towards change is always a factor. The psychodynamic therapy focuses on the patient’s past childhood experiences to discover the cause; yet, ultimately, the therapy will not discover the solution. Next, according to Scott M. Bea, PsyD, a Clinical associate, the biggest disadvantage of psychodynamic therapy is it “may be misapplied to patients whose symptoms are not based in unconscious conflict. It relies on hypothetical constructs that have not been evaluated empirically in systematic and controlled studies” (121). In addition, is it likely to even be able to scientifically and logically study conceptions such as the unconscious mind? As has been noted, Freud's theories are subjective and arbitrary; therefore, a clear disadvantage to psychodynamic therapy is the unscientific data and it’s impossible to test in the approach to human behavior through the unconscious mind. Clearly, in the midst of research, Freud grabbed hold of a genius idea which, in turn, created other therapies, but, unfortunately, lacked the diverse evidence for full proof.

Psychoanalysis was first given its name in the 1980’s by Sigmund Freud. The theory was both founded and developed by Freud and plays a significant role in our understanding of Psychology and the human mind in this present modern day. Freud held a strong interest within the unconscious mind and believed unconscious thoughts and feelings to be at the root of psychological distress (Cabaniss, 2011). The aim of psychodynamic therapy is to bring forward the thoughts that hide deep within the unconscious, into the conscious mind to allow for psychological and self-awareness to develop within the client. The Psychodynamic paradigm is seen to hold a rather deterministic view towards humanity. According to the theory, humans are made up of inner instinctive drives (Rizq, 2010) and forces of which our thoughts, emotions, and thus our behaviour is motivated and driven by. Freud theorised that humans repressed certain emotions, desires and thoughts in infanthood (not childhood??). It therefore became an aim of

A important measure of psychodynamic therapy is the constant union that psychiatrist but forth to a patient to build a relationship where there’s trust. That is the only way to truly understand and gather all information needed to understand the emotions of the patient. Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung influenced psychodynamic, they were unconscious and psychic approach. Jung’s studies were mainly on spiritual influences and collective unconscious. The psychodynamic approach is based on the analysis of dreams, transference, and the insightful resistance (Plante, 2011). The goal is to understand human motives, drives, and other unconscious energies. The goals are to find a patient’s awareness of oneself and understand the influence of the past stimuli on the present behavior. A psychodynamic approach helps a patient to examine conflicts and symptoms that are unresolved and have developed from dysfunctional relationships of the past (Haggerty, M.D.,

There are several different explanations that fall under the psychodynamic "umbrella" that explain why a person develops depression. Psychoanalysts historically believed that depression was caused by anger converted into self-hatred. Children who develop depressive symptoms typically are raised by neurotic parents who are inconsistent, lacking in warmth, inconsiderate, angry, or driven by their own selfish needs. These behaviors lead to the them feeling alone, confused, helpless and ultimately, angry. But, out of fear, love, and guilt, they repress anger toward the parents and turn it against themselves so it becomes an anger directed at him or herself. Caught between the belief that he or she is unacceptable, and the imperative to act perfectly to obtain parental love, they become prone to experiencing exaggerated anxiety and feelings of depression. They also feel that he or she is not good enough, no matter how hard he or she tries. Now, this sort of treatment and environment can evolve into more severe depression and anxiety disorder as an adolescent and adult. (Pshychodynamic Theories, 2007)

Psychoanalysis is based on elaborate theories. This approach views the mind on three different levels: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. Everything one person is aware of falls into their “conscious” and the things that are yet to be known but easily can be assumed fall into their “preconscious”. The “unconscious” are memories or emotions that are stored away from the “conscious” or “preconscious” that will reappear in a time when the person is focusing on serious or threatening situations. Patients who participate in psychodynamic therapy will take sessions that encourage them to talk about whatever comes to their mind while the therapist just listens and does not give advice.

The history of mental illness or associated disorders is one that I believe cannot be said to say that we have learned from our mistakes. While the saying “learn from the past, or we are doomed to repeat it” is one which seems to rarely apply in any political / social standpoint, so too does it rarely apply in mental illness stigmatisms. However despite the millennia which have passed for humans on this planet, we still know very little about certain mental disorders. While substantial progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of most illnesses, there are still a few practices, stereotypes, and behaviors associated to mental depravities.

About 19 million teens and adults in the United States alone suffer from depression a very serious medical illness. Depression is far more concerning than just feeling sad or going through hard times for a day. Depression is a severe mental health disorder that consists of seeking help, management, and a recovery plan (Durbin, 2014). However, many individuals do not seek the proper help because of the stigma depression comes along with, such as being classified as being crazy or weak minded. The social worker’s practice problem is to focus on decreasing symptoms of depression on the individuals who come in the clinic feeling depressed. In addition, an untreated depression is a serious problem because it leads to high dangerous behavior such as self-harm, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, and domestic violence (Durbin, 2014). Suffering from depression can cause the individual to lose loved ones by the lack of comprehension, cause complications at work, and it can make it hard to deal with emotionally as each day passes by. In conclusion, this research study in depression is important because the percentage of high-risk behavior could be decreased and it can help save the lives of people suffering from depression.

Psychotherapy has changed its ways and many new methods are employed to make this field efficient. Starting its roots from Freud, there have been many upsides and downsides of psychotherapy. Eventually, it led to the formation of many branches of psychotherapy and psychodynamics is one active branch which gained lot of emphasis. The contributions in developing this method are immense and patients all over the globe can benefit from the advancements. In this method, it is no longer about the patient relaxing on a comfortable couch and vomiting out emotions while the therapist listens patiently without making a noise. Therapists in Toronto are forever researching on finding new ways to understand minds and treat mental illnesses in an even better

The psychodynamic approach can be traced to Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. He first concentrated on a cathartic method to release repressed emotions associated with past experiences and then began to focus on a free association method and the development of transference (Messer, 2001). Underlying the psychoanalytic perspective is the idea of the unconscious. The unconscious is where past experiences and true emotions are hidden. Manifestation of an undesirable trait, such as anger, along with excessive use of defense mechanisms lead to the assumption of a deeper conflict hidden within the unconscious. Psychodynamic techniques try to gain access to the unconscious and make the patient aware of the underlying conflict (Phares and Trull, 2001). Among the emphases of psychodynamic therapy are a focus on the evocation and expression of emotion to uncover the patient's unconscious issues, the importance of emotional insight in which the patient can experience and comfortably understand his emotion, a concentration on a

Through revealing the cause of the given concern, the client potentially would undergo a cathartic release and be released from the presenting emotional cause (Corey, 2009). Freud’s classic psychoanalysis, lacked training, research, empirical data, was expensive, and limited the client’s settings for sessions (Norcross & Prochaska, 2014). In stating the aforementioned, Freud’s classic psychoanalysis, then evolved into psychodynamic therapy, neo-Freud (Norcross & Prochaska, 2014). In psychodynamic therapy, the clinician examines the unconscious mind to aid the client in learning and confronting their internal crisis that is exhibiting itself as symptoms of a psychological disorder, from a non-sexual stance (Corey,

The psychoanalysis approach deals with improving disorders that interfere with the day to day function of an individual. Therapists who make use of this approach focus mainly on the individual’s developmental history (Ivey, 1997) and the unconscious of the client in order to reach a point at

It is difficult to summarize psychodynamic theory without a brief discussion of Freud. Sigmund Freud is the father of psychoanalysis, the father of psychodynamic theory, and in effect the father of modern psychotherapy. Freud's notions retain quite a bit of popularity, especially his ideas that things are not what they seem on the surface. Because of his understanding of the mind and behavior, Freud considered that overt behaviors were not always self-explanatory (or perhaps "not often explanatory" would be the better term). Instead, these overt or manifest behaviors represent some hidden motive. Sigmund Freud was trained as a neurologist and specialized in the treatment of nervous disorders. His early training involved using hypnosis with the French neurologist Jean Charcot in the treatment of hysteria, the presentation of baffling physical symptoms (mostly in young women) that appeared to have no physical origin (Hall, Lindzey, & Campbell, 1998). Freud also partnered with the Viennese physician Josef Breuer who practiced a revolutionary "talking cure" to reduce patients' symptoms by talking with them about how they felt as well as using hypnosis to remove emotional barriers to their feelings. He eventually abandoned the use of hypnosis in favor of a process he termed "free association" in which he had patients talk about what was on their minds without censoring their train of thought. This led Freud to develop his theory of the human mind as a complex system that is

The Psychoanalytical Approach to psychology is arguably the first theory of psychology. The psychoanalytical approach is the study of unconscious forces and how these affect our behaviour. Freud was the first to challenge the view that mental disorders were not caused by physical illness. Instead he proposed that psychological factors were responsible. Freud is a key theorist of the psychoanalytical approach. He was an Austrian neurologist who was fascinated with studying hysteria.