Psychodynamic approach 2

• Oedipus complex 


  • Boys develop intense sexual felings towards their mother and resent their fathers for maropolizing on her time (fathers are seen as a love rival)
  • Fearing that their fathers will castrate them if they realise this ('castration anxiety"), boys repress their sexual feelings for their mothers and take on their fathers values and beliefs to befriend him to reduce this anxiety
  • Boys begin to develop their superego when this complex is resolved
• The Oediuous complex - Case of Little Hans 


  • 1909
  • Hans was 5yrs old and had a phobia of horses
  • Freuds explanation:
  • Hans was fascinated by his penis (phallic stage) and noticed that animals had larger penesis than him. Interest penesis indicates he was in the phallic stage
  • Hans’ father went away and enjoyed his mothers attention. Hans was jealous. Evidence of the Oedipus complex.
  • Hans felt sexual attraction for his mother, saw his father as a rival. Evidence of castration anxiety
• The Electra Complex 


  • During the phallic stage, girls realise they are simply castrated males
  • They believe their mother have castrated them so they develop penis envy (3yrs old)
  • When that desire is fulfilled, it is expressed through the desire to have a baby instead
  • Girls develop sexual desires for their fathers but these are repressed in favour of identifying with her mother
  • This is done passively
• Why do we have complexes?


  • if successfully resolved, boys strongly believe they identify with their fathers allowing for the creation of their superego
  • Freud said girls have an underdeveloped superego as their identification with their mother is weaker (no motivation) and so females are morally inferior to men.
  • If there is a positive parental figure at the phallic stage, a child has no one to identify with so has an under-developed conscience
• Why do we need defence mechanisms?


  Constant disagreements between the id and the superego can lead to a lot of anxiety.

  So the ego develops methods for defending you from being overwhelmed

  Anxiety weakens the ego so these mechanisms protect it

  They are uncoscious

  They all involve some distortion of reality so lead to damage to our psychological health as a long term solution.
• What is the repression defence mechanism?


  Forcing a distressed memory out of the conscious minf
• What is the denial defence mechanism?


  Refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
• What is the displacement defence mechanism?


  Transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target e.g. Slamming a door
• One strength of this approach

  • introduced psychotherapy
  • Freuds psychoanalysis was the first attempt to treat mental disorders psychologically rather than physically
  • Psychoanalysis claims to help clients deal with problems by providing access to their unconscious using techniques such as dream analysis
  • Psychoanalysis is the forerunner to many modern day talking therapies such as counselling.
• Weakness of the psychodynamic approach 


  Not appropriate (an even harmful) for serious mental disorders e.g. Schizophrenia
• Strength of this approach

  Controversial theory but has a huge influence in western contemporary thought and has been used to explain a wide range of behaviours. It has drawn attention to the influence of childhood on adult personality
• One weakness of the psychodynamic approach 


  • lack scientific rigour and the theory is pseudoscience (’fake science’) because it includes untestable concepts
  • Karl Popper (philosopher of science) argued the approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification as it cannot be disproved.