The Psychodynamic Approach

Key Assumptions:

·        The main assumption of the psychodynamic approach is that all behaviour can be explained in terms of the inner conflicts of the mind.

·        Freud highlights the role of the unconscious mind, the structure of personality, and the influence that childhood experiences have on later life.

·        Freud believed that the unconscious mind determines most of our behaviour and that we are motivated by unconscious emotional drives.

The Personality:

• Id: it is the biological part (instincts and drives) of the personality. It is present at birth. The Id is motivated by the pleasure principle; it demands instant gratification of its needs.
• Ego: develops from 1 – 3 years. It is motivated by the reality principle. It mediates the conflicts between the ID and superego. It uses defence mechanisms to achieve this.
• Superego: develops from 3 – 5 years. It is motivated by the morality principle. It punishes the ego with guilt for “wrongdoing.”

To be mentally healthy, the ego has to be able to balance the demands of the ego and the superego.

The Mind:

·The conscious: this is the part we are aware of and can access without any effort. It contains part of the ego.

·The preconscious: this is a part of the mind that we cannot access without effort. It contains the ego and some of the superego.

·The unconscious: this part of the mind cannot be accessed without the help of a trained psychoanalyst. It contains the superego and the Id.

When unconscious conflicts between the Id and the superego cannot be resolved by the ego, they create anxiety. To reduce this anxiety, we use defence such as repression.

The Defence Mechanisms:

·Repression: Is used by the ego to keep disturbing memories out of the conscious mind and in the unconscious mind where they cannot be accessed, e.g., sexual or aggressive urges or painful childhood memories.

·Displacement: An impulse may be redirected from its original target onto a more acceptable one, e.g., being angry with your father and shouting at your little sister.

·Denial: the existence of unpleasant internal or external realities is denied and kept out of conscious awareness,…