Psychodynamic Approach Attributed to Sigmund Freud 1856 –1939

Sigmund Freud 1856 –1939

Key elements of theory The Structure of personality The Psychosexual stages of development The importance of the unconscious mind, relationships and early experience in later psychological functioning.

The Structure of Personality Personality is divided into three parts: the id is active at birth, the ego and the super ego develop, one after the other, during childhood. The id it is our unconscious life energy or libido, our instinct to survive, it works on the pleasure principle wanting instant gratification.

The ego is the rational and conscious part of our personality and works on the reality principle. The superego is last to develop it is our conscience and moral director. Unconscious conflict between the id, ego and superego may result in psychological disorders

The unconscious mind is often represented as an iceberg. Everything above the water represents conscious awareness, while everything below the water represents the unconscious.

Ego Defence Mechanisms Unconscious defences such as Repression, Displacement and Denial are used to protect our ego from conflict and anxiety that we are unable to deal with in our childhood.

Read through Table 1. Defence mechanisms – on page 239. Discuss how these mechanisms might work in real life, coming up with an example you can share with the class for each one. They have given you examples of displacement and denial to help give you the idea.

Through these mechanisms the cause of the conflict or anxiety removed from our conscious awareness. Stress in later life may act to bring the dormant conflict/anxiety to consciousness, which in turn may lead to psychological abnormality

Psychosexual Stages We develop gradually through psychosexual stages: oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage and latency period. The id looks for gratification in different bodily areas during these different stages If we are frustrated/deprived or over-indulged within any of these stages we may become fixated in that stage leading to stage appropriate behaviour being displayed in adult behaviour.

Oral Stage His only excuse for smoking was that he had been weaned too early in the oral stage of development.

Anal Stage Toilet training too soon or too late can have consequences later in life… Anal retention = Overly ordered Anal expulsion = Overly messy

Anal Stage Being watched became a fixation for Trevor

The most important feature of the phallic stage is the Oedipus complex

In the Elektra complex Freud proposed that penis envy leads daughters to develop more affection for the father

Latency period Between the phallic stage and puberty there are no real psycho sexual changes. At puberty sexual feelings become directed towards potential partners.

The importance of the unconscious mind The unconscious is responsible for defence mechanisms and storage of repressed anxieties

Relationships and early experience can also affect later psychological functioning. Both of these can be the cause of anxiety and fixations e.g. adult phobias may result from early experience.

Coulrophobia is abnormal or exaggerated fear of clowns Adam was physically punished by his mother as a child, she was a very pale woman who wore heavy make up!