#psychodynamic approach

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Pictured above (and adorned with a flower crown) is Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), an Austrian neurologist whose radical ideas about gender development are a) crazy and b) definitely in your psychology textbook.  As you begin to learn about his work and ideas, you will undoubtedly question them and begin to wonder what on Earth inspired him.  Whilst it's true that many of his ideas are based on little scientific knowledge, many psychologists have used them as a basis to develop their own theories and ideas and his own theories are still widely discussed and debated today.  Since his ideas are so prominent in the psychodyamic approach of my course, I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to write a little about his background and how he developed his ideas.

Freud lived in Vienna and trained as a doctor, and shocked at the lack of knowledge about mental health disorders, he developed a theory focused on providing treatment for those affected.  He believed that energy is an instinct, a need for hunger, thirst, warmth and sex drive.  Since most people in his Viennese society were not hungry, thirsty or cold, most of this energy came in the form of a sex drive.  He believed that this energy could be trapped in different developmental stages throughout childhood, each focused on different erogenous zones, and that if too much or too little indulgence was given at any stage, too much energy would be used up in dealing with this, creating a fixation and determining certain traits that would be present in adulthood, as well as the potential for a mental health disorder to develop in later life.  Freud believed that by listening to patients and analysing what they said, he could tap into their unconscious mind and identify any past traumas or fixations in order to deal with the mental health problems they were now facing.  This type of treatment - now known as psychoanalysis - is still widely used today.

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Freud's Theory of Personality

Freudsuggested that there are three aspects of personality, the id, ego and superego which develop through the first five years of childhood.

The id is the first element to develop - in the first five years of childhood.  The id focuses on the pleasure principle, much like a baby will cry until it gets what it wants. The id forms the unconscious mind and can only be accessed through interpretation of dreams.

The ego then develops, forming the conscious part of the mind. It focuses on the reality principle and the rational part of the personality.

The final part to develop is the superego, which makes up the morality principle and develops in the final five years of childhood.  The ego must now satisfy both the id and the superego, which act as the extremes of personality.

In order for an adult to have a balanced personality, the ego should be able to successfully manage the demands of both the id and the ego.  If this balance is not achieved, the adult may develop problems or neurosis. 

Whilst developing his ideas, Freud assumed that the mind consisted of three parts: the conscious (which contains all that we know), the preconscious (which we don't directly know about, but can access through memories) and the unconscious mind (which we cannot access).  He claimed that the unconscious mind was the largest part of the mind and is filled with our deepest thoughts and desires as well as material from our everyday experiences.  Defence mechanisms are used widely in order to prevent these thoughts becoming conscious.

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Defence Mechanisms

According to Freud, defence mechanisms are ways of protecting the ego when there is conflict between the superego and id.  However, the overuse of the following defence mechanisms can also cause individuals to lose touch with reality, for example if denial is overused, the person may become confused as to what is and isn't real.

repression refers to not remembering something because it cannot be accessed, needing to remain in the unconscious to protect the personality, eg. an adult may repress memories of childhood abuse to stop them from developing relationship problems or mental health problems

displacement is when unacceptable thoughts or wishes are put onto something or someone other than their real focus, eg. children marrying people that are similar to their opposite sex parent after the Oedipus complex has been resolved

denial refers to refusing to acknowledge threatening thoughts altogether, eg. an alcoholic denying their addiction because they do not want to accept that they have a problem

projection refers to when threatening thoughts of your own are said to belong to another person, eg. if someone was jealous, they may say their friend was jealous instead

regression is when you revert back to a childlike state in order to cope or block something out, eg. an adult may cry or scream if they feel scared.

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How Does Society Benefit from Psychology? - Psychodynamic Approach

The psychodynamic approach has highlighted the significance of the meaning of dreams, with the manifest content (what we can remember from the dream) being able to reveal our unconscious wishes and desires (latent content).  Freud proposed that identifying these unconscious thoughts could help with resolving psychological problems or mental disorders.  It also offers an alternative explanation to the biological approach, which states that dreams are just a side product of the brain trying to make sense of random thoughts we have during sleep.  The psychodynamic theory can be used to explain why we have recurring dreams, however, unlike the biological theory and the explanation is based on a lot of in-depth analysis of lots of qualitative data, however the theory cannot be scientifically tested, whereas the biological dream theory can be supported by sleep studies, brain scans and EEG's.

This strange approach has also been used to create another treatment for mental disorders: psychoanalysis, a type of talk analysis of which dream analysis plays a huge part.  When someone thinks about having therapy, the image of a client lying on a sofa with the psychologist sat behind them is what tends to come to mind and this is how psychoanalysis works, with the psychologist out of the client's eyeline so they are free to focus on their own thoughts.  However, psychoanalysis is very unlike CBT in that it usually takes place over a long time period (so the psychologist and client can establish a trusting relationship) and that the client must focus on past events and memories (ie. repressed past thoughts) rather than the way they think now.  By reflecting on past events, the psychologist can identify any conflict between the id and the superego and any repressed memories, freeing the client from any depression or anxiety they may be experiencing.

Freud's dream theory appears to be a good way to uncover unconscious thoughts and desires, however it's scientific merit is constantly questioned, however psychoanalysis has been used to develop other talk therapies like CBT, which are supported by their own studies.  Freud used case studies as evidence, however these individual studies are not generalisable as they are each unique.  The studies (and psychoanalysis in general) is subjective, meaning that psychologists can choose how to interpret dreams, as found by Storr (1987).