Psychodynamic Perspectives : The Psychodynamic Perspective

Psychoanalysis is a therapy of psychological theory that aims to treat mental illnesses based on the concepts of Sigmund Freud, who emphasized the importance of free association and dream analysis. The model of psychoanalysis aim is to release repressed emotion and experiences, by making unconscious thoughts, conscious. The fundamental principles of psychoanalysis are practiced by putting an emphasis on the patient to gain insight into the origins of their respective problems like a patient presenting symptoms of anxiety would be encouraged by a licensed professional to explore their past, in hopes of discovering problems that manifested the anxiety. The anxiety created may be a defense mechanism directed towards displacement in their world.

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.

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

Firstly I'm going to evaluate Psychodynamic Psychology as this is one that I have previous knowledge about. First founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) an Austrian Psychologist who linked childhood experience with how it influences us as adults. He described that experiencing something in childhood resulted in similar behaviour as an adult. The Psychodynamic approach believes we have drives which can determine our behaviour and that these drives are shaped in childhood and this is where we develop our personality. The strengths to this approach is that if we get to the core of the problem psychologically and tackle the memory linked to the behaviour, it may change the way we interpret memory into the certain behaviour.

The psychodynamic approach by Freud and Erickson focuses on the impact the un-conscious mind has on behaviour, bad childhood experiences and dealing with emotion. When someone does not want to accept that something bad has happened in their life they may dismiss this to their un-conscious mind or distorting the truth by telling them that it is not true, this is linked to the clinical ice berg.

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

Since adulthood, the structure of the development of personality current is observed under the terms of whether he or she passed with success the different psychosexual stages of childhood, youth and adulthood. Different mental illnesses are the result of a failure in the progression through the early childhood development (for example, - caught up in the “annals “of the stage), which in turn, translate into problems with the balance of the structure of the personality (the ego, the superego and the id). Some of the unconscious reasons for the majority of human behavior are sex and aggression. (Herkov, M. G. (2013, January 30). For example, perhaps the superego is much stronger than it should be and the ego is unable to always counteract its demands for

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

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

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.

They are many theories in psychology that can be used to “understand” behaviour, two theories I am going to look at are; Psychodynamic approach and the humanistic approach. I will discuss these 2 psychological theories of development and explain how it accounts for the psychological development, health and behaviour of the individual.

The contemporary psychodynamic theory focuses on the unconscious drives and forces within human functioning. The original psychodynamic theory was considered to be psychoanalysis which was created by Freud. However, now psychodynamic theory embodies ideas not only from Freud, but from many of his followers as well. Some of the assumptions that are made by the psychodynamic approach include that all behavior has a cause whether it is conscious or unconscious; adult behavior is rooted in childhood experiences; and that people are strongly shaped by unconscious motives. These assumptions are addressed in a therapeutic setting by utilizing dream analysis, free association, projective tests, and even hypnosis. The primary focus in the therapeutic process is helping the client to become more aware of the self as well as helping them to understand how their past experiences have influenced their existing behavior. The psychodynamic theory assumes that the personality is made up of three

The psychoanalytic perspective, is the outlook that behavior and personality are effected by the conflict between one’s inner dreams n and expectation of society. Most of this conflict occurs in unconscious, which is outside the knowledge of an individual. Renowned psychologist, Freud established the psychoanalytic theory as an explanation for perplexed phenomena such as the meaning behind dreams, slips of the tongue, and behavioral reflex reactions to stressful situations. The unconscious is a primary focus in psychoanalytic theory due to its typical development in childhood and the ways in which it influences nearly every detail of an individual’s life. The unconscious mind also holds unvented memories and unexpressed urges that make their process into the conscious mind through a variety of different means. However, topographical theory of the mind states that conscious, preconscious, and unconscious serve as motivating forces in human behavior. Corsin & Wedding (2011) define the conscious as mental activity which individuals are fully aware of, preconscious as thoughts and feelings that could be easily brought to mind and unconscious as thoughts, feelings, and desires of which one is unaware of.

The second perspective is the psychodynamic perspective. The psychodynamic perspective emphasizes how the role of early childhood experiences, the unconscious mind and interpersonal relationships play a part in abnormal behavior. This perspective evolved from Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory which generally contended that psychological disorders are the outcome of anxiety which is produced by unresolved, unconscious conflicts.

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