The psychodynamic approach to psychology focuses on the internal, unconscious

mental forces that individuals are largely unaware of, but drive emotions and
actions. Unconscious psychological activities include underlying desires and
anxieties that are present deep within the mind yet influence personality and
behavior. The psychodynamic approach is rooted in additional assumptions, one of
the most significant being that childhood experiences are key factors in the
creation of the human personality. This perspective also proposes that the human
personality is composed of several parts that interact and create conflicting
dynamics that cause anxiety should they remain unbalanced. Sigmund Freud, the
originator of the psychodynamic concept, introduced additional ideas including
defense mechanisms, which manifest as a result of the desire to protect the
conscious mind from unpleasant thoughts and memories. An exploration of Freud's
history and theories, in addition to modern viewpoints, help reveal the elements of
the psychodynamic approach.
Psychodynamics, also known as psychodynamic psychology, in its broadest sense,
is an approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the
psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how
they might relate to early experience.
The psychodynamic theory is a psychological theory Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
and his later followers applied to explain the origins of human behavior.
The psychodynamic approach includes all the theories in psychology that see
human functioning based upon the interaction of drives and forces within the
person, particularly unconscious, and between the different structures of the
personality.
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis was the original psychodynamic theory, but the
psychodynamic approach as a whole includes all theories that were based on his
ideas, e.g., Carl Jung (1912), Melanie Klein (1921), Alfred Adler (1927), Anna
Freud (1936), and Erik Erikson (1950).
The words psychodynamic and psychoanalytic are often confused. Remember that
Freud’s theories were psychoanalytic, whereas the term ‘psychodynamic’ refers to
both his theories and those of his followers.
Freud’s psychoanalysis is both a theory and therapy.
Sigmund Freud (writing between the 1890s and the 1930s) developed a collection
of theories which have formed the basis of the psychodynamic approach to
psychology.
His theories are clinically derived - i.e., based on what his patients told him during
therapy. The psychodynamic therapist would usually be treating the patient for
depression or anxiety related disorders (Saul McLeod, updated 2020).
The Clinical Paradigm
The Clinical Paradigm is the framework through which we apply a psychodynamic
lens to the study of behavior in organizations.
Basic Assumptions
Our behavior and feelings are powerfully affected by unconscious motives:
The unconscious mind comprises mental processes that are inaccessible to
consciousness but that influence judgments, feelings, or behavior (Wilson, 2002).
According to Freud (1915), the unconscious mind is the primary source of human
behavior. Like an iceberg, the most important part of the mind is the part you
cannot see.
Our feelings, motives, and decisions are actually powerfully influenced by our past
experiences, and stored in the unconscious.
Our behavior and feelings as adults (including psychological problems) are rooted
in our childhood experiences:
Psychodynamic theory states that events in our childhood have a great influence on
our adult lives, shaping our personality. Events that occur in childhood can remain
in the unconscious, and cause problems as adults.
Personality is shaped as the drives are modified by different conflicts at different
times in childhood (during psychosexual development).
All behavior has a cause (usually unconscious), even slips of the tongue. Therefore
all behavior is determined: The determinist approach proposes that all behavior has
a cause and is thus predictable. Free will is an illusion, and our behavior is
governed by internal or external forces over which we have no control.
Psychodynamic theory is strongly determinist as it views our behavior as caused
entirely by unconscious factors over which we have no control.
Unconscious thoughts and feelings can transfer to the conscious mind in the form
of parapraxes, popularly known as Freudian slips or slips of the tongue. We reveal
what is really on our mind by saying something we didn't mean to.
Freud believed that slips of the tongue provided an insight into the unconscious
mind and that there were no accidents, every behavior (including slips of the
tongue) was significant (i.e., all behavior is determined).
Personality is made up of three parts (i.e., tripartite): the id, ego, and super-ego:
The id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality. It consists of all
the inherited (i.e., biological) components of personality present at birth, including
the sex (life) instinct – Eros (which contains the libido), and the aggressive (death)
instinct - Thanatos.
The ego develops in order to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external
real world. It is the decision making component of personality.
The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from
one's parents and others.
Parts of the unconscious mind (the id and superego) are in constant conflict with
the conscious part of the mind (the ego). This conflict creates anxiety, which could
be dealt with by the ego’s use of defense mechanisms.
History of Psychodynamic Theory
Anna O a patient of Dr. Joseph Breuer (Freud's mentor and friend) from 1800 to
1882 suffered from hysteria.
In 1895 Breuer and his assistant, Sigmund Freud, wrote a book, Studies on
Hysteria.
In it they explained their theory: Every hysteria is the result of a traumatic
experience, one that cannot be integrated into the person's understanding of the
world. The publication establishes Freud as “the father of psychoanalysis.
By 1896 Freud had found the key to his own system, naming it psychoanalysis. In
it, he had replaced hypnosis with "free association."
In 1900 Freud published his first major work, The Interpretation of Dreams, which
established the importance of psychoanalytical movement.
In 1902 Freud founded the Psychological Wednesday Society, later transformed
into the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.
As the organization grew, Freud established an inner circle of devoted followers,
the so-called "Committee" (including Sàndor Ferenczi, and Hanns Sachs (standing)
Otto Rank, Karl Abraham, Max Eitingon, and Ernest Jones).
freud Wednesday society
Freud and his colleagues came to Massachusetts in 1909 to lecture on their new
methods of understanding mental illness. .
Those in attendance included some of the country's most important intellectual
figures, such as William James, Franz Boas, and Adolf Meyer.
In the years following the visit to the United States, the International
Psychoanalytic Association was founded. .
Freud designated Carl Jung as his successor to lead the Association, and chapters
were created in major cities in Europe and elsewhere. .
Regular meetings or congresses were held to discuss the theory, therapy, and
cultural applications of the new discipline.
Jung's study on schizophrenia, The Psychology of Dementia Praecox, led him into
collaboration with Sigmund Freud.
Jung's close collaboration with Freud lasted until 1913. Jung had become
increasingly critical of Freud's exclusively sexual definition of libido and incest. .
The publication of Jung's Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (known in English
as The Psychology of the Unconscious) led to a final break.
Following his emergence from this period of crisis, Jung developed his own
theories systematically under the name of Analytical Psychology. .
Jung's concepts of the collective unconscious and the archetypes led him to explore
religion in the East and West, myths, alchemy, and later flying saucers.
Melanie Klein took psychoanalytic thinking in a new direction by recognising the
importance of our earliest childhood experiences in the formation of our adult
emotional world. .
After becoming a full member of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Society in 1923, Klein
embarks upon her first analysis of a child. .
Extending and developing Sigmund Freud’s ideas, Klein drew on her analysis of
children’s play to formulate new concepts such as the paranoid-schizoid position
and the depressive position.
Anna Freud (Freud's daughter) became a major force in British psychology,
specializing in the application of psychoanalysis to children. .
Among her best known works are The Ego and the Mechanism of defense (1936).
Strengths
It has given rise to one of the first “talking cure,” psychoanalysis, on which many
psychological therapies are now based.
It could be argued that Freud was the first person to highlights the importance of
childhood in mental health and this is an idea extensively used today.
The Psychodynamic approach takes into account both sides of the Nature/Nurture
debate.
Freud claimed that adult personality is the product of innate drives- i.e., natural
motivations or urges we are born with- and childhood experiences- i.e., the way we
are raised and nurtured.
Limitations
Ignores mediational processes (e.g., thinking)
The psychodynamic approach places too much emphasis on the psychological
factors, without considering the biological/genetic factors that influence and
contribute to mental health problems.
Too deterministic (little free-will)
Unfalsifiable (difficult to prove wrong)
Case Studies - Subjective / cannot generalize results
Simplifying the human mind into the id, ego, and superego and the five
psychosexual stages make the approach reductionist.
Areas of Application
Gender Role Development
Therapy (Psychoanalysis)
Play Therapy (Anna Freud)
Attachment (Bowlby)
Moral Development (super-ego)
Psychopathology (e.g., Depression)
Aggression (Displacement / Thanatos)
Dream Analysis
Critical Evaluation
The psychodynamic approach has given rise to one of the first “talking cure",
psychoanalysis, on which many psychological therapies are now based.
Psychoanalysis is rarely used now in its original form but it is still used in a shorter
version in some cases.
The greatest criticism of the psychodynamic approach is that it is unscientific in its
analysis of human behavior. Many of the concepts central to Freud's theories are
subjective, and as such, difficult to test scientifically.
For example, how is it possible to scientifically study concepts like the
unconscious mind or the tripartite personality? In this respect, it could be argued
that the psychodynamic perspective is unfalsifiable as its theories cannot be
empirically investigated.
However, cognitive psychology has identified unconscious processes, such as
procedural memory (Tulving, 1972), automatic processing (Bargh & Chartrand,
1999; Stroop, 1935), and social psychology have shown the importance of implicit
processing (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). Such empirical findings have
demonstrated the role of unconscious processes in human behavior.
Kline (1989) argues that psychodynamic theory comprises a series of hypotheses,
some of which are more easily tested than others, and some with more supporting
evidence than others.
Also, while the theories of the psychodynamic approach may not be easily tested,
this does not mean that it does not have strong explanatory power.
Nevertheless, most of the evidence for psychodynamic theories is taken from
Freud's case studies (e.g., Little Hans, Anna O).
The main problem here is that the case studies are based on studying one person in
detail, and with reference to Freud, the individuals in question are most often
middle-aged women from Vienna (i.e., his patients). This makes generalizations to
the wider population (e.g., the whole world) difficult.
Another problem with the case study method is that it is susceptible to researcher
bias. Reexamination of Freud's own clinical work suggests that he sometimes
distorted his patients' case histories to 'fit' with his theory (Sulloway, 1991).
The humanistic approach makes the criticism that the psychodynamic perspective
is too deterministic. Freud suggests that all thoughts, behaviors and emotions are
determined by our childhood experiences and unconscious mental processes.
This is a weakness because it suggests we have no conscious free will over our
behavior, leaving little room for the idea of personal agency (i.e., free will).
Finally, the psychodynamic approach can be criticized for being sexist against
women. For example, Freud believed that females' penis envy made them inferiour
to males.
He also thought that females tended to develop weaker superegos and to be more
prone to anxiety than males.
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