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The Psychodynamic Theory And The Development Of Sigmund Freud

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The Psychodynamic approach was first developed by the famous Sigmund Freud, an Austrian physician. The ideology behind this theory is that personality relates to the internal forces that we do not understand, push and pull us (McLeod, 2007; Eysenck, 2015, p. 201, Kalat, 2015, p. 451). Psychodynamic refers to the group of explanations and theorists that account for this dynamics of behaviour. However, Sigmund Freud is considered the father of Psychoanalysis which based on his psychiatric work in Vienna. Freud believed that mental disorders originated from unresolved unconscious conflicts rather than physical or biological factors. Therefore simply understanding and bringing the unconscious material into consciousness would be the key to psychological improvement. Freud argued that the conscious mind was only the tip of an iceberg while most of the mind was out of sight. The overall goal of his search for the unconscious was to bring memories back to the conscious mind which would release emotional tension known as catharsis thus enabling the person to overcome irrational impulses (Kalat, 2015). He abandoned his emphasis on childhood sexual abuse as he believed patients had “misled” him (Freud in Kalat, 2015, p. 452) It is stated that scholars insisted that he had no evidence for it (Masson & Esterson in Kalat, 2015. P. 452). Kramer (2006) that states that “Interviews of his surviving ex-patients revealed that he often deviated from his procedure he recommended.” Ultimately

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