Freud's Psychodynamic Approach

When forming a comprehensive theory of personality, alternative and established methods should not be used in opposition to one another, but rather in addition to, the combination of which should have the highest probability of accurate assessment and treatment. In putting the strongest aspects of each of the below theories together, we attempt to recognize that the multiple, often contrasting truths within each are not a paradox, but rather an acceptance of every branch and leaf that attaches itself to the tree of human personality and psychopathology. With further research and extensive clinical work, psychology might realize that what appeared to be different truths are actually interconnected parts of a whole.
As is historically appropriate,
However, much like psychoanalysis, object relations theorists rely on, “presumed unconscious dynamics (sometimes even of a barely verbal infant) rather than the observable interpersonal transactions of relationships” (Sollod p. 262). Therefore most of the hypotheses put forth are untestable, and rank low in refutability. But again, there is still much to be drawn from the early object relationships we develop in infancy, and how they inform and condition our adult
Similar to object relations, Horney focused on the interpersonal nature of our early relationships as being responsible for our adult drives and neuroses, as opposed to being the result of instinctual drives for the satisfaction and gratification of sexual and aggressive needs. She theorized that these early relationships fill us with differing levels of anxiety and hostility, which translate into neurotic needs that shape our personality depending on how one represses these troubling and overwhelming emotions in