Introduction to Psychodynamic Theory
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
The psychodynamic theories that I have been studying this year have been nothing short of fascinating and as a result, I now view life in a very different way. I can see many of these concepts in both my own life and in my client work.
I was relinquished by my mother and adopted when only a few days old and although my adoptive parents made me aware of my situation from an early age, I did not understand or accept the magnitude of this early life experience until much later in life. Many of the theories I am studying this year relate to early infancy and the importance of the mother and these theories have proved challenging for me, on a personal level.
We have only briefly touched on the work of Sigmund Freud this year. I am very interested in working with both the conscious and unconscious processes and this was championed by Freud. Many of Freud’s concepts come in pairs: conscious and unconscious, ego and id, internal and external, Eros and the death instinct and can bring conflict; the urge to love and the urge to destroy. Freud was one of the first to use dreams as a tool in psychoanalysis, stating that dreams are the ‘royal road to the unconscious.’ (Freud 1899) One of the concepts that I feel particularly drawn to is what Freud called the repetition compulsion. I understand this to mean the need people seem to have to create for themselves repeats of earlier difficult or uncomfortable situations and relationships from childhood.
‘we have come across people all of whom human relationships have the same outcomes: such as the benefactor who is abandoned in anger after a time by each of his protégés, however much they may otherwise differ from one another, and who thus seems doomed to taste all the bitterness of ingratitude; or the man whose friendships all end in betrayal by his friend; or the man who time after time in the course of his life raises someone else into a position of great private or public authority and
The psychodynamic theories that I have been studying this year have been nothing short of fascinating and as a result, I now view life in a very different way. I can see many of these concepts in both my own life and in my client work.
I was relinquished by my mother and adopted when only a few days old and although my adoptive parents made me aware of my situation from an early age, I did not understand or accept the magnitude of this early life experience until much later in life. Many of the theories I am studying this year relate to early infancy and the importance of the mother and these theories have proved challenging for me, on a personal level.
We have only briefly touched on the work of Sigmund Freud this year. I am very interested in working with both the conscious and unconscious processes and this was championed by Freud. Many of Freud’s concepts come in pairs: conscious and unconscious, ego and id, internal and external, Eros and the death instinct and can bring conflict; the urge to love and the urge to destroy. Freud was one of the first to use dreams as a tool in psychoanalysis, stating that dreams are the ‘royal road to the unconscious.’ (Freud 1899) One of the concepts that I feel particularly drawn to is what Freud called the repetition compulsion. I understand this to mean the need people seem to have to create for themselves repeats of earlier difficult or uncomfortable situations and relationships from childhood.
‘we have come across people all of whom human relationships have the same outcomes: such as the benefactor who is abandoned in anger after a time by each of his protégés, however much they may otherwise differ from one another, and who thus seems doomed to taste all the bitterness of ingratitude; or the man whose friendships all end in betrayal by his friend; or the man who time after time in the course of his life raises someone else into a position of great private or public authority and
References: Freud, S. (1920) Beyond the pleasure principle in The standard edition (Vol.18) Gomez. L (1997) An Introduction to Object Relations, London, Free Association Michael Khan (1997), ‘The Meeting of Psychoanalysis and Humanism’ In Between Therapist and Client: The New Relationship. London, Freeman O’Shaughnessy, E. (1981) ‘A Commemorative Essay on W.R. Bion’s theory on thinking,’ Journal of Child Psychotherapy (1981) Segal, J (1992) Melanie Klein, London, Sage Winnicott, D. (1953). Transitional objects and transitional phenomena, International Journal of Psychoanalysis 34:89-97 Winnicott, D. (1956) Primary Maternal Preoccupation in Through Paediatrics to Psychoanalysis (1958)