Psychodynamic Approach: A Psychological Study

Psychodynamic approach
Assumes the importance of;
- childhood experiences have a great influence on our adult lives, shaping our personalities. childhood events can remain in the unconscious + cause problems as adults Freud – all children go through 5 x psychosexual stages of development;
- relationships Particularly family members and especially parent and child, used as a template for adult relationships.
-the unconscious mind influences our behaviour. Often the conscious mind is unaware of thoughts and emotions that occur in the unconscious, -that can have an effect on our conscious mind.

-small amount of activity that we know about

-things we could be aware of if we wanted to be

-unaware of and can’t become aware of
ID- Infantile pre-socialised. EGO- executive part of personality, logic+ decision. SUPEREGO-moral, punishment/reward parent.
Born with it, inherited Based on upbringing Based on morals
Instincts; sexuality and aggression Enables distinguish between wished + ID impulse Represents internalised parental morals
Excitation and builds up pressure Modified by external world, environment Operates according to morals
Demands immediate gratification to bear upon the ID Observes, orders, judges and threatens EGO-Guilt-bad, Ego rewards-good.
Governed-pleasure Reality principle Like parents
Aim; reduce excitation Defer gratification and postpone satisfaction. Corresponds to rewarding or punishing parent.
- An overdeveloped section= abnormality.
Defence Mechanisms
-ID, ego and super ego are always in conflict,
-ego uses defence mechanisms to reduce anxiety
Repression-keeping threatening thoughts out of conscious, suppressing them. “a woman doesn’t remember being raped”
Displacement- moving impulses away from a threatening object “blaming the wife at home for a drink driving crash”
Projection – putting own beliefs/behaviours onto someone else “talking about how stupid something is to someone assuming the other person feels the same way, without any indication”
Denial – not accepting the reality “rejecting HIV diagnosis, mistake or lousy doctor”
Psychosexual stages of development
Oral,
ID
(0-18m) Pleasure centres on the mouth
Sucking, biting, chewing
Anal
Ego
(18-36m) Pleasure centres on bladder elimination coping with demands for control
Phallic
Superego
Oedipus/ Electra complex (3-6yrs) Pleasure centres on genitals
Coping with incestuous feelings
Latency
(6yrs-puberty) Dormant sexual feelings
Genital
(Puberty-onwards) Maturation of sexual interests
Oedipus complex
-boys love for mother, becomes increasingly passionate
-jealous of father, wants him out of the way
-castration anxiety
-observes females have no penis
-makes desire for mother unconscious
-represses hostile feelings for father and identifies with him, comes to act like him
-superego develops and the male sex role (gender)
Electra complex
-believes already been castrated
-blames mother for penis envy
-substitutes penis envy for wish for a baby
-turns to father as a love object
-identifies with the mother, anaclictic identification, the good girl that a mother would want
-no fear of castration = weaker superego
-sequence of psychosexual stage, determined by motivation.
-how a child is treated at each stage is crucial
-excessive gratification + extreme frustration = fixation at a stage
-physical and sexual maturation complete = complete personality development

Application to anorexia
Anorexia may be a response to early childhood experiences
Carter et al - 48% anorexics reported childhood sexual abuse (small sample)
Freud – problems during oral stage substitute for sexual expression
- Fear of adult sexuality, eating symbolic of sexual penetration
- Not eating symbolic of repressing sexual
impulses,
- Unconscious, avoid growing up and becoming independent.
- Amenorrhoea, periods stopping, returning the body to prepubescent state.
Evaluation
-significant and influential as its led to the recognition of
- the importance of early childhood experiences on later behaviour
-the importance of the unconscious mind on human behaviour
-enormous impact on psychology, influenced other research into mind dynamics
X-retrospective in nature, can be biased and distorted due to reconstructive memory
X-no account to present day circumstance, could be important in onset and maintenance of abnormality
X- Freud’s theory is un-falsifiable, concepts can’t be subjected to scientific testing, cant be proven.
X- No responsible to the individual, as hidden from them in the unconscious.

Treatment, psychoanalysis
Free association
-client expresses anything that comes to mind leading to other thoughts, censoring nothing
-ego defences may be lowered, accessing repressed material
-therapist encourages reflection on particular experiences, analyses
Dream analysis
-lifts barriers to the unconscious
-symbolic imagery of dreams reflect unconscious material
-analysis of content enables therapist to identify significant conflicts repressed into the unconscious
-Feud assumed dreams have an obvious content, recall visible content, beneath this lies dream meaning that can be revealed through therapist interpretation.
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Therapist interprets symbolism in dreams
Putting together themes from free association= regular anxieties and conflicts
emerge
The client works through issues with the therapist thus resolving their anxiety
Evaluation
Effectiveness
X - Eysenck – 10k patient histories (large sample), psychoanalysis 64% success rate Concluded psychoanalysis less effective than eclectic/collective therapies
-Bergin – analysed 10k data - 80% benefited from psychoanalysis compared to 65% eclectic therapies, supports it
-Tschusckle- large study on 450 patients - investigated long term psychoanalysis treatment -concluded longer treatments=better outcomes

Appropriateness
– Freud introduced that mental illness may have a psychological cause, so treatment should be psychological X -Psychoanalysis based on Freud’s personality theory if flawed, the explanation and therapy will be flawed
Eysenck- therapy can delay recovery only appropriate for certain patients, with insight into their condition, young and articulate. X -some therapist don’t help patients recover repressed memories but plant false memories
X - psychoanalysis assumes patients can recall early repressed memories But little evidence to support this (loftus-retrospective memory)

General evaluation on therapies
-accepts complexity of humans, that the roots of adult disorders may be in repressed material and childhood
X-long lasting and expensive
X-therapy depends on the client developing insight into their condition, Unsuitable for those unwilling to analyse their lives
X- Ethical issues in confronting clients with distressing material during analysis Important that issues are worked through with the client to a satisfactory conclusion
X-no account for present day circumstances that could be contributing to the disorder requires a client to look back, ignoring the present