Psychodynamic Approach

Freud believed human behavior was not consciously controlled, and credited three parts in the mind to any psychological activity. These are called the unconscious, the preconscious and the conscious. Personality too was given three parts, the id, the super ego and the ego. Freud believed these parts in our mind have their individual parts to play in the way we go about life. He also stated the only way to work through conflicts that arise from our subconscious and unconscious mind is through dream analysis and psychoanalysis. Other key concepts in psychodynamic theory are the psychosexual stages of development, anxiety, defence mechanisms, and free association.

The history of Psychodynamic psychology originated with Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century. Freud proposed a psychodynamic theory to which personality consists of the id. The Id is present at birth and it resides in the world of unconsciousness. Freud also said that the unconscious is also a place where human instinctual biological drives reside. The drives direct our behaviour towards choices that promise to satisfy our basic human needs. The drives ensure our survival like drinking water and eating food, the desire for reproduction and the necessity for aggression.

The basic idea of Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic perspective of an individual’s personality focuses on the role our unconscious thoughts, feelings and our early childhood experiences and how it determines an individual’s behavior. Freud argues the largest part of the human mind is hidden or unconscious, which are things that people can’t easily bring to awareness. These either originate in the unconscious mind as drives or instincts and they can become "hidden" at some point in life; especially after a traumatic experience. In Freud's theory, there are three levels of awareness: the id corresponds to the unconscious, the ego to the conscious, and the superego to the "preconscious."

Sigmund Freud, a well-known psychologist portrays an interest in the Psychodynamic approach to Psychology. Freud developed a theory relating to personality in the aftermath of his observation of patients experiencing a disorder called conversion hysteria. He took particular interest in the unconscious

Freud’s most credible work is that of the unconscious mind. He proposed that there are

The psychodynamic approach to psychology is the study of human behaviour from the point of view of motivation and drives. The original beliefs of this approach were created by Sigmund Freud in the 1800s. Although it is now generally seen negatively in the common view, sometimes comically, it has provided the inspiration for a few of the current leading approaches to psychology.

Individuals have minimal through and through freedom to settle on decisions in life. Rather, human behaviour is dictated by the oblivious personality and childhood encounters. Freud's analysis of Psychodynamic approach is both a hypothesis and a treatment.

Freud created the Psychodynamic Approach to explain behaviour. Within it, he describes that there are 3 components of the human mind: The conscious, Pre-conscious and Unconscious. The conscious is the part of the mind which is in our awareness; it contains behaviours and desires which we are aware of. The pre-conscious is the part of the mind between the conscious and unconscious, it contains items such as memories and desires which we are not currently thinking about but can easily bring to conscious awareness. Lastly is the unconscious. This part of the mind is

Freud believed that the human personality consisted of three interworking parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id, the largest part of the mind, is related to desires and impulses and is the main source of basic biological needs. The ego is related to reasoning and is the conscious, rational part of the personality; it monitors behavior in order to satisfy basic desires without suffering negative consequences (Boundless.com). The superego, or conscience, develops through interactions with others (mainly parents) who want the child to conform to the norms of society (Boundless.com). Freud believed that our adult lives were shaped by childhood experiences, meaning that if children did not receive the proper nurturing, that the child would be stuck in that stage or behaviors

Jones and Butman (2012) in chapter four point out that contemporary psychodynamic approaches, although they originate from Freud’s view of personality development, psychodynamic view are less biological and mechanistic. Psychodynamic approaches focuses more on individuals’ cognitive and interpersonal process. Jones and Butman argue that psychodynamic approaches are divided into three views: ego Psychology, object-relations and self-psychology. These theories propose that caregivers or parents should foster both independence, and protection and nurturance so as to deter personality disturbances. The ego psychology model argues that personality development occurs across the life span. The theory suggests that the ego strives for adaptability,

The superego is a projection of the ego. It is the moral censoring agency; the part that makes moral judgments and the repository of conscience and pride. It brings reason, order and social acceptability to the otherwise uncontrolled and potentially harmful realm of biological impulses (Guerin 128-31).

It should be stated that this concept as drawn criticism from other theorist but nonetheless, Freud’s model has led to many advances in the field of psychology. This theory divides the mind into three structures which are the “id,” “ego,” and the “superego.” The “id” can consist of humanity’s most primitive desires to satisfy its biological needs unconsciously. Superego, which is also unconscious, contains the socially-induced conscience and counteracts the id with moral and ethical prohibitions. Then you have conscious ego which is the mediator between the two. A conscious mind is what someone is aware of at any given moment. For example, it is made aware to the readers that Fortunato had been drinking when Monstresor seen him at the carnival. It stated. “It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend. He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much (Poe, 2008).” Then you have the preconscious which is “part of the mind below the threshold of immediate conscious awareness, from which memories and emotions that have not been repressed can be brought into the conscious field (psychoanalysis, 2o15).” It is also described as available memory and something can be easily remembered such rules. For Monstresor, his preconscious knew that a man like Fortunato would never pass up an opportunity to

The result of this is that they cannot judge or think about this world from an objective point of view. Egotism can blind people and prevent people in different ways, such as personal development. An online article on the website of GoodNewsNetwork confirmed why egotism can blind people: “the ego-mind isn’t contributing to humanity and isn’t able to look at the world as a whole. It’s only able to look at a fragmented piece of the whole that it identifies as ‘Me’” (GoodNewsNetwork 9). So, egotism must be removed or we will not really be able to reflect on ourselves nor think about other things properly. Holiday explained the urgency of removing ego: “Ego is the enemy of what you want and of what you have. It repulses advantages and opportunities. It’s a magnet for enemies and errors” (Holiday 150).

Freud said that the Ego is the mediator between the Id and Superego and the outside world. For the Ego to do its job, it has to delay the desires of the Id until it is socially acceptable to give the Id the needs. So our conscious-driven Ego is a balance of the Id and Superego, evening out our primal needs

Freud’s psychoanalytical approach emphasized the unconscious workings of the mind when explaining human behavior. Freud divided personality into three areas: conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. This became the topographical model. He explained that the conscious portion is made up of the thoughts a person is aware of. The preconscious portion is made of accessible and retrievable information, and the unconscious is made up of information that has no immediate