Psychodynamic Perspective Essay

This perspective involves examining the physical aspects that affect a living thing’s behavior such as the brain, nervous system, and genetics.

To begin, the psychodynamic theory is based on Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and primarily focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in the development of personality. The psychodynamic theory includes the idea that people have defense mechanisms. Psychological defense mechanisms are ways of dealing with anxiety through unconsciously distorting one’s perception of reality, such as denial and repression. In addition, sexual impulses play a large role in the psychodynamic theory. According to Freud, part of personality is outside of awareness, unconscious. The unconscious has difficulty retrieving material and is well below the surface of awareness. Also, the past is important in the psychodynamic theory. There are some advantages and disadvantages to this theory. For instance, the advantages are: psychodynamic theory recognizes the importance of childhood; other theorists after Freud have revised the approach to be less controversial, and this theory has been

Psychodynamic Perspective is known as “dynamic psychology”. The study of human feelings that may have been brought on early on in a situation. It helps in figuring out why an adult thinks and

In the four major theories of personality one of these theories is psychodynamic. Psychodynamic personality theory focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in the development of personality. In Freud’s study, one of the advantages that prove to be present in psychodynamic theory is its ability to recognize there is subconscious and how it has impact on one’s life. As well, it brought the importance that childhood experiences have an effect on an individual’s life. For example, many of Freud’s patients proved this case when discussing the effects of being sexually abused as a child altered their way of living. However, one of the disadvantages of this theory would be its claim that human behavior is pre-determined and individuals do not have free will. For instance, the psychosexual stages that Freud claim that lead to the end result personality of an individual.

In the counseling world today understanding psychodynamic approaches is more crucial than ever in the assessment and treatment of any psychological issue. Psychodynamic approaches such as Individual therapy, analytical therapy and psychoanalysis are similar in many ways but also differ based on the individuals own perception and circumstances. I will discuss the similarities as well difference’s and why these forms of therapy are critical in the assessment and treatment of clients.

ID, ego and superego. He said you were born with ID which was in your

While in college, Behavioral Psychology greatly intrigued Maslow but, soon found aspects he disagreed with. He found Behavioral and Psychoanalytic psychology only focused on the negative primitive aspects of humanity. Maslow argued that although humans can be cruel and negative there are also positive aspects of humanity such as compassion, kindness, empathy and many others. He felt that current schools of thought during his time watered down humanity made it seem simplistic and he wanted there to more positivity to add to the complexity that is humanity. Humanistic Psychology according to Shiraev (2015), “a value of orientation that holds a hopeful and constructive view of people and of their substantial capacity to be self-determining” (p. 389).

I primarily believe in the behavioral perspective. However, on the topic of obsessive compulsive disorder I find that I favor the psychodynamic perspective. OCD is classified as a long lasting disorder, in which a person has recurring thoughts and behaviors they feel need to be completed repetitively. I tend to favor the behavioral perspective because I agree with the idea that outside factors influence a persons responses and behaviors. Throughout childhood and even more on, one is constantly taught about their environment and they learn everything they need to know in life through this perspective. Whether that be conditioning a child as they grow, so that they are able to learn and differentiate good from bad through reward and punishment. To understanding why an individual acts a certain way and what

The psychodynamic approach was proposed by Freud. This approach towards personality is based on the notion of underlying forces such as the id, ego and superego which are either present from birth or develop during childhood shape our behaviour and personality as such. Experiences in childhood are proposed to be the basis of human personality, according to Freud and as such Psychodynamic theory proposes that some undesirable unbalances between the id and superego can create the arising of ego defence mechanisms which explain individual differences in behaviour. Freudian theory has been adapted by neo-Freudians, however while psychodynamic

Deciding what theory to conceptualize things during supervision was hard because I had a hard time reminding myself that they weren’t my clients. My theory of choice has always been CBT and as such, I have chosen the same one for supervision. At first, I felt lost and found myself not knowing what to say, which reminded me of my first couple of sessions before I had decided on my theory. I honestly didn’t know that supervisors worked from a theory I assumed that was only during therapy with clients. I remember asking one of my supervisors about this topic several years ago and she stated that she works from an eclectic perspective during supervision. However, she did have a chosen theory when working with clients. I came in with a certain mentality,

Freud proposed the psychological structure of personality to include three systems called the id, the ego, and the superego. At birth, the id is the original system of personality and is ruled by the pleasure principle. It is driven towards satisfying instinctual needs. The ego can be described as a mediator between ones instincts and their surrounding environment. The ego is ruled by the reality principle, using realistic and logical thinking to formulate action plans for satisfying needs. The superego includes a person’s moral code and strives for perfection, not pleasure. Psychic energy is distributed between these three systems creating dynamics of personality. This psychic energy is what determines behavior (Day, 2008).

ANNA O • Anna O (real name Bertha Pappenheim) was not actually Freud’s patient, she was a patient of Freud’s older friend Josef Breuer. However, Anna O can still claim the distinction of being the founding patient of psychoanalysis because Freud developed the first stages of his theory based on her case. It is, therefore, worth knowing a few details of her case. At the time of her illness, Anna was 21 years old and until the illness struck she had been healthy and intelligent and had shown no signs of neurosis1 . However, her feelings had always been exaggerated and she could be moody and she day-dreamed a great deal. Her illness fell into several phases: 1. Latent incubation - the early

Psychoanalytic perspective deals with personality and behavior that are caused by unconscious motives and conflicts. Sigmund Freud has introduced this, and showed that he researched neurological disorders dealing with psychological causes. Freud, in his research, discussed different regions of the human’s mind, one of which is the unconscious region-contains thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories of which are unaware; some are stored in temporarily in a preconscious area from which we can retrieve them into conscious awareness. He came to a conclusion that we are being influenced by these troublesome feelings even though we are not consciously aware of them. ID is the part of the mind that tries to satisfy basic drives that operate on the pleasure principle. The ego is the largely conscious executive part of the mind that mediates among the id, superego, and reality-guiding behavior to try to satisfy desires in realistic ways. The superego is the part of the mind that represents ideals, morals, and the conscience. The concept of personality development is based on the concept of perfection of oneself and ones reaction in order to acquire a well-developed personality. What I have learned from taking this class is that personality has different approaches and the main approaches that I have learned are the trait approach, psychoanalytic, behavioral, and humanistic approaches.

Humanistic theory is a branch of the personality theories. It says that individuals have free will. And we can actively develop ourselves to our highest potential and reach self-actualization. It focuses on the conscious, and it also says that people are inherently good and that we are self-motivated to improve. Maslow said that we must first fulfill our physiological need to form our base of the pyramid to be able to work our way up the pyramid. And then we need to fulfill our needs for safety, love and self-esteem before self-actualization can be achieved. It sounds easy but can’t easily reach our self-actualization. There are a few characteristics of self-actualize people. They must be self-aware, loving, caring and wise. They focus their energy on tasks that are the missions of their life, and they have a higher purpose that focus on