Notes on Psychoanalytic Perspective PDF

**Psychodynamic Perspective of Mental Health Behavior** The psychodynamic approach in psychology emphasizes unconscious processes and unresolved past conflicts as influences on behavior. Rooted in Freud's theories, it explores the interplay of drives, desires, and defense mechanisms in shaping pers...

**Psychodynamic Perspective of Mental Health Behavior** The psychodynamic approach in psychology emphasizes unconscious processes and unresolved past conflicts as influences on behavior. Rooted in Freud's theories, it explores the interplay of drives, desires, and defense mechanisms in shaping personality and behavior. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Assumptions** ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The causes of behavior have their origin in the unconscious mind.\ Psychic determinism: all behavior has a cause/reason. E.g., slips of the tongue (we have no free will).\ Behaviour is motivated by instinctual drives, Eros (Life) & Thanatos (Death).\ Different parts of the unconscious mind are in constant struggle (id, ego, and superego).\ Our behavior and feelings as adults (including psychological problems) are rooted in our childhood experiences (psycho-sexual stages) **Methodology**  [[Dream Analysis]](https://www.simplypsychology.org/sigmund-freud-dream-theory.html)\ Free Association\ Projective Tests (TAT, Inkblots)\ Clinical interviews\ Hypnosis ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- **Weaknesses** ------------------------------------- Unfalsifiable\ Subjective interpretation\ Lacks empirical evidence)\ Deterministic (little free will)\ Unrepresentative sample\ ignores cognitive processes ------------------------------------- **Key Figures** - Freudians and neo-Freudians both subscribe to the psychodynamic approach to psychology, which emphasizes the role of unconscious mental processes in human behavior and emotions. **Neo-Freudians** expanded on or challenged Freud's original theories. They were all influenced by Freud's work, but they also developed their own unique theories about human behavior and personality.  - - [**[Alfred Adler]**](https://www.simplypsychology.org/adlerian-therapy.html): Adler was another Austrian psychiatrist who was a student of Freud's. However, he later broke away from Freud to develop his theory of personality, known as individual psychology. Adler's theory emphasized the importance of striving for superiority and belonging. - [**[Melanie Klein]**](https://www.simplypsychology.org/melanie-klein.html): Klein was a British psychoanalyst who contributed significantly to understanding early childhood development and child psychopathology. - [**[Karen Horney]**](https://www.simplypsychology.org/karen-horney-biography.html): Horney was a German-American psychoanalyst who was one of the first female psychoanalysts to be taken seriously. Her work focused on the impact of social and cultural factors on personality development. Horney believed that anxiety was the root cause of all psychopathology. - [**[Erik Erikson]**](https://www.simplypsychology.org/erik-erikson.html): Erikson was a German-American psychoanalyst who developed the theory of psychosocial development. Erikson's theory describes the eight stages of development that people go through from birth to death. **[Assumptions]** The main assumptions include Freud's belief that abnormality came from psychological causes rather than physical causes, that unresolved conflicts between the[ id, ego, and superego](https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html) can all contribute to abnormality, for example: - - - Freud also believed that early [childhood experiences](https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.html) and [unconscious motivation ](https://www.simplypsychology.org/unconscious-mind.html)were responsible for disorders. According to the psychodynamic approach, the unconscious is the part of the mind that contains things we are unaware of, such as feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories. According to Freud (1915), the unconscious mind is the primary source of human behavior. Like an iceberg, the most important part of the mind is the part you cannot see. Our feelings, motives, and decisions are powerfully influenced by past experiences and stored in the unconscious. Most of the content of the unconscious is unacceptable or unpleasant and could cause feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict if it becomes conscious. For example, hysteria is an example of a physical symptom that has no physical cause though the ailment is just as real as if it had, but rather is caused by some underlying unconscious problem. The unconscious is seen as a vital part of the individual. It is irrational, emotional, and has no concept of reality which is why its attempts to leak out must be inhibited. The role of the unconscious mind is to protect the ego from this content. However, according to Freud, the content of the unconscious motivates our feelings, motives, and decisions. **Importance of early experience** Our behavior and feelings as adults (including psychological problems) are rooted in our [[childhood experiences.]](https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.html) The psychodynamic theory states that events in our childhood have a significant influence on our adult lives, shaping our personality.  Personality is shaped as the drives are modified by different conflicts at different times in childhood (during psychosexual development). Freud's theory of psychosexual stages of development predicated that childhood experiences create the adult personality. Events that occur in childhood can remain in the unconscious and cause problems as adults, such as mental illness. **Psychic determinism** Psychodynamic theory is strongly determinist as it views our behavior as entirely caused by unconscious emotional drives over which we have no control. Unconscious thoughts and feelings can transfer to the conscious mind through parapraxes, popularly known as [[Freudian slips]](https://www.simplypsychology.org/freudian-slip.html) or slips of the tongue. We reveal what is really on our minds by saying something we didn't mean to. Freud believed that slips of the tongue provided an insight into the unconscious mind and that there were no accidents, every behavior (including slips of the tongue) was significant (i.e., all behavior is determined). **Behavior can be explained in terms of the inner conflicts of the mind** Personality comprises three parts (i.e., tripartite): the [[id, ego, and super-ego]](https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html). Parts of the unconscious mind (the id and superego) are in constant conflict with the conscious part of the mind (the ego).  - - - When unconscious conflicts between the id and the superego cannot be resolved by the ego, they create anxiety. To reduce this anxiety, we use [[defense mechanisms]](https://www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.html) such as repression To be mentally healthy, the ego has to be able to balance the demands of the ego and the superego. If the superego is dominant, the individual might develop a neurosis e.g., depression. If the id is dominant, the individual might develop a psychosis e.g., schizophrenia. According to the psychodynamic approach, the therapist would resolve the problem by assisting the client to delve back into their childhood and identify when the problem arose. Having identified the problem, this can be brought into the conscious, where the imbalance can be resolved, returning equanimity between the id, ego, and superego. Consequently, the defense mechanisms will only operate at the maintenance level, and the mental illness will be cured. - **Nature vs. Nurture** - Sigmund Freud believed both nature (innate drives) and nurture (early life experiences) played crucial roles in human development. For Freud, the interplay of nature and nurture was central to understanding human psychology. - He posited that individuals have inborn instincts and drives, like the id's desires. Simultaneously, he emphasized the profound impact of early childhood experiences, especially within the family dynamic, on personality and behavior. - The psychodynamic approach argues that we are driven by innate biological instincts, represented by the Id (nature), but the ways these instincts are expressed are shaped by our social and cultural environment, such as early childhood experiences (nurture). - Psychoanalytic therapy has been seen as appropriate mainly for the [[neurotic disorders]](https://www.simplypsychology.org/neuroticism.html) (e.g. anxiety and eating disorders) rather than for the psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. It is also used for depression although its effectiveness in this area is more questionable because of the apathetic nature of the depressive patients. - Bachrach et al., (1991) suggests that psychoanalysis may not be appropriate for patients suffering from [[obsessive-compulsive disorder]](https://www.simplypsychology.org/ocd.html) in that it may inadvertently increase their tendency to over-interpret events in their life. - One of the very influential concept put forward by Freud is the lasting importance of childhood on later life and development. This has influenced [[Bowlby's theory of attachment]](https://www.simplypsychology.org/bowlby.html). John Bowlby (1952) was a psychoanalyst (like Freud) and believed that mental health and behavioral problems could be attributed to early childhood. - the greatest criticism of the psychodynamic approach is that it is unscientific in its analysis of human behavior.  Many of the concepts central to Freud's theories are subjective and as such, difficult to test scientifically. - For example, how can scientifically study concepts like the unconscious[ mind](https://www.simplypsychology.org/unconscious-mind.html) or the tripartite personality?  In this respect, it could be argued that the psychodynamic perspective is [unfalsifiable](https://www.simplypsychology.org/karl-popper.html) as its theories cannot be empirically investigated. - However, cognitive psychology has identified unconscious processes, such as [procedural memory](https://www.simplypsychology.org/procedural-memory.html) (Tulving, 1972), [automatic processing](https://www.simplypsychology.org/automatic-processing.html) (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999; Stroop, 1935), and social psychology have shown the importance of [implicit processing](https://www.simplypsychology.org/implicit-bias.html) (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). Such empirical findings have demonstrated the role of unconscious processes in human behavior. - The concepts of id, ego and superego are very abstract and difficult to test experimentally, so evidence is obtained from case studies.However, the sample used in these case studies is mainly Austrian, so lacks population validity. - The main problem here is that the case studies are based on studying one person in detail, and concerning Freud, the individuals in question are most often middle-aged women from Vienna (i.e., his patients). This makes generalizations to the wider population (e.g., the whole world) difficult. - Another problem with the [case study method](https://www.simplypsychology.org/case-study.html) is that it is susceptible to researcher bias. Re examination of Freud's own clinical work suggests that he sometimes distorted his patients" case histories to "fit" with his theory (Sulloway, 1991). - The [humanistic approach](https://www.simplypsychology.org/humanistic.html) criticizes that the psychodynamic perspective is too deterministic. Freud suggests that all thoughts, behaviors, and emotions are determined by our childhood experiences and unconscious mental processes. This is a weakness because it suggests we have no conscious free will over our behavior, leaving little room for the idea of personal agency (i.e., free will). - The individual is not seen as responsible for their disorders however as the conflicts which lead to the disorder are unconscious there is nothing they can do about it without an analyst, they are disempowered. - Finally, it cannot explain the biological symptoms observed in some disorders, such as enlarged ventricles in schizophrenics.