Psychodynamic approach to psychopathology

Psychodynamic Model

• The psychodynamic approach believes that an individual's abnormal behaviour is determined by unresolved unconscious conflicts in early childhood. This is based on the idea that much of our behaviour is driven by unconscious motives and that childhood is a critical period of development. Conflicts most often occur between the id's (pleasure principle) and the superego's (moral principle). These conflicts create anxiety. The ego protects itself against anxiety by using defence mechanisms such as repression and denial.

• Freud believed that childhood experiences are a crucial element in the way we behave as adults, especially experiences during the psychosexual development. He said that we go through stages in our early development…