PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

HISTORY AND CONTEXT  Sigismund Freud was born in Vienna on the 6 th of may  Freud came up with the psychodynamic approach  He studied medicine and became a doctor  Worked in Paris with psychiatrist Jean-Martin Charcot who treated people with paralysed limbs and treated them with hypnosis.  He then went on to work with Joseph Breuer where they helped a woman get over her fear of drinking water by removing the fear using hypnosis.  Freud wondered if there was part of the brain that couldn’t be accessed under normal conditions.

 Freud published his first book of his work ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ in  After he published he spent the next 30 years developing his ideas.  He refined and amended his ideas for a long time making this approach one of the most complex.

FREUD WAS A COCIANE ADDICT!  In 1894 Freud became addicted to cocaine!  Freud was working alongside William Haltsted when they were working on ‘An anatomy of addiction’  The base of the work was cocaine.  Freud then became an addict for a couple of years.  He used it as an anaesthetic and used it to open his mind and to think of things in a different context.  All of his work was conducted whilst he was on the drug making his approach questionable.

THE ROLE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS  The unconscious can be defined as: The part of the mind we are unaware of but it continues to direct much of our behaviours  As majority of the mind is made up from the unconscious.  It contains all of the threatening and disturbing memories which we repress

 Just ‘below’ the conscious is the preconscious – this is where ideas and thoughts arise in dreams or through slips of the tongue (also known as Freudian slips). For example, calling a female teacher “mum” instead of “miss”.  Freud said that dreams contained hidden desires and wishes, these were usually sexual or aggressive in nature.  Freud also believed that the unconscious could be assessed through the process of free association. This is where he asked patients the first thing that came into their mind when he showed them images or said a word.  Freud believed this was a representation of the unconscious – which would lead to further analysis.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE PERSONALITY  Freud described personality as tripartite (made of 3 parts) these are known as the id, ego and superego.  Freud saw these three components in an ongoing dynamic relationship. It is believed that a healthy adult has a strong ego, and able to mediate between the id and the superego. However the id or superego can take the main role meaning the person will either be hedonistic and pleasure seeking (id dominated) or overwhelmed by feelings of guilt (superego dominated)

THE ID  This is the primitive part of the personality, it operates on a pleasure principal.  At birth this is the only one of the three structures that is present, and throughout life the id is completely selfish.

THE EGO  This works on the reality principal  It is the mediator between the other two structures  This part develops around the age of 2  The role of it is too reduce the demand between the id and the superego, and it does this by employing a number of defence mechanisms. (protecting the ego from unpleasant feelings)  E.g. repression (info being stored in the unconscious), denial (ignoring truthful info), displacement (feelings caused by one thing are pushed onto another).

THE SUPEREGO  This is formed at the end of the phallic stage (in the psychosexual stages).  It is known as our internalised sense of wrong and right, and is based on the morality principal.  It can produce feelings of guilt for wrongdoing.

THE PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES  Freud believed that life was built around tension and pleasure, and that all tension was due to the build up of libido.  In 1905, he proposed that psychological development in childhood takes place in a series of fixed stages – psychosexual stages.  Each stage in the psychosexual stages represents a source of pleasure from a certain part of the body.  There are 5 stages, but we only need to know 3. Libido = Sexual drive Fixation = The libido is ‘stuck’ in a certain stage due to frustration and/or overindulgence

Oral Stage – 0-18 months (Libido is focused in the mouth) Pleasure comes from through sucking, feeding and biting. Fixation in this stage can be seen in nail- biters and smokers.

Anal Stage – 18 months-3 years (Libido is focused in the anus) Pleasure comes from pooping. Early potty training can lead to the child having an anal-retentive personality (who hates mess, is obsessively tidy, punctual, etc.). Paced potty training can lead to an anal- expulsive personality (who is messy and likes to share things).

Phallic Stage – 3-5 years (Libido is focused in the genitals) Pleasure comes from self-exploration and masturbation. For boys, Freud believed in the Oedipus complex. This is where the son saw his mother as a love object and his father as a rival. These feelings are repressed and the son starts to identify with his father. For girls, it was the Electra complex where the daughter realises both her and her mother don’t have a penis (‘penis envy’). Now she see’s her father as a love object, but motherhood resolves this complex.

CONTRIBUTIONS  His work on early childhood was accepted and developed by John Bowlby (1951) for attachment theory – He claimed that the personality developed in early childhood through the child's interaction with their parents. ​  From his theories, sprung the treatment known as psychoanalysis which cures people by making conscious of their unconscious thoughts. The aim of this is to release repressed emotions and experiences. Psychoanalysis is commonly used to treat depression, anxiety disorders and post traumatic stress disorder. ​  Freud’s idea and concepts have also been used to explain behaviours such as aggression, prejudice and psychological difficulties such as eating disorders.