The Primacy Of Inner Drives And Human Behavior

This case begins with teachers of an elementary school being concerned with two young girls who are sisters. The teachers are concerned due to their sadness and comments such as “must not talk about dirty things.” The school’s nurse visits the home of the girls and meets the mother, Mrs. Jarvis, who states that the behavior may be a result of their father’s possible unemployment and his strictness within the household. The school nurse contacts an agency, who has the girls meet with a psychologist. It is found that the girls are being molested by their father and the police are notified, who arrest their father. Mrs. Jarvis does admit she knew her husband was, “playing with” the girls, but pretended not to believe it. Mrs. Jarvis shared she
Freud coined the term, “psychoanalysis” in 1896 (Beystehner, 1998). “The basis of psychoanalytical theory is the primacy of internal drives and unconscious mental activity in human behavior” (Hutchison, 2017, p. 99). Drives essentially motivate human behavior to satisfy impulses. Positive emotions are experienced when drives are satisfied and negative emotions are experienced when drives are dissatisfied (Hutchison, 2017). Through this theory, Freud hoped to understand how the conscious and unconscious mind are connected. Individuals are unaware of their unconscious mind which has influence over their conscience
Their behaviors may be affected by the trauma and abuse they have experienced. In helping to work with this family, it is important to understand, that “change requires that we uncover unconscious material and the accompanying feelings that are repressed or kept out of the conscious” (Hutchison, 2017, p.100). It is important for instance to be aware that these children may use defense mechanisms to keep these experiences from entering the conscious mind. Psychoanalytic theory may provide insight into past, present, and future behaviors. Helping these individuals to address their primary issues would be effective in this