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Psychodynamic Family Therapy

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Ron Pinson
Psychology 643
Intro to Marriage & Family Therapy
Autumn 2011
Professor Katrin Sanford, MS, LMFT
Anna Maria College

PSYCHODYNAMIC FAMILY THERAPY

PSYCHODYNAMIC THERAPY
The Beginnings of Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud was the discoverer and inventor of psychoanalysis and coined the term in 1896 after publishing studies on Hysteria with Joseph Breuer in 1895. Psychoanalysis still remains unsurpassed in its approach to understanding human motivation, character development, and psychopathology. Freud’s insights and analyses of psychic determinism, early childhood sexual development, and unconscious processes have left an indelible mark on psychology (Korchin, 1983).
The terms psychoanalyses, psychoanalytic theory, and …show more content…

More specifically, Freud traces the roots of all adult behaviors back to childhood impulses and showed how conflicts related to the development of sexuality in childhood subsequently results in psychopathology or neuroses. (Good & Beitman)

Erik H Erickson is another Freudian in the field that has pioneered new territory in Psychoanalysis. Erik Erikson was born June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany. His father, a Danish man, abandoned the family before he was born. His young, Jewish mother later married a physician, Dr. Theodor Homberger.

His interest in identity developed early based upon his own experiences in school. At his temple school, the other children teased him for being Nordic because he was tall, blonde and blue-eyed. At grammar school, he was rejected because of his Jewish background.

After spending some time traveling throughout Europe, Erik Erikson studied psychoanalysis from Anna Freud and earned a certificate from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Erikson moved to the United States in 1933 and was offered a teaching position at Harvard Medical School. In addition to this, he also had a private practice in child psychoanalysis. Later, he held teaching positions at University of California at Berkeley, Yale, San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, Austen Riggs Center, and Center

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