Psychodynamic Approach

• PD - Assumptions

  • Childhood is critical.
  • Mental disorders arise from conflicts in childhood.
  • Resolution occurs when coming to terms with repressed ideas.
  • Our behaviour is driven by unconscious motives.
• Id (Birth)

  The pleasure principle.

  Entirely unconscious.

  The id is made up of selfish aggressive instincts that demand immediate gratification.
• Ego (2yrs)

  The reality principle.

  The 'reality check' that balances the conflicting demand is the Id and super-ego. uses defence mechanisms that prevent us from being overwhelmed by temporary threats. However they can involve the distortion of reality.
• Superego (5yrs)

  The morality principle.

  The moralistic part of our personality that represents the ideal self - how we ought to be.
• Defence Mechanisms


  Unconscious strategies that the ego uses to manage the conflict between the id and the superego.
• Freudian Slip (Parapraxes)


  Proof of our unconscious.
• Psychosexual Stages


  • Oral
  • Anal
  • Phallic
  • Latency
  • Genital
• Oral Stage (0-1 yrs)


  Focus of pleasure is the mouth, mothers breast can be the object of desire.
• Anal Stage (1-3 yrs)


  Focus of pleasure is the anus. Child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces.
• Phallic Stage (3-6yrs)


  Focus of pleasure is the genital area.

  • Oedipus complex
  • Electra complex
• Latency


  Earlier conflicts are reppressed
• Genital


  Sexual desires become conscious along the onset of puberty.
• Oedipus Complex


  Little boys develop incestous feelings for their mother and feel their father its their rival. However fearing castration, they instead begin to see their father as a role model.
• Electra Complex


  Young girls experience penis envy and they desire their father. This then gets replaced with the desire for a baby.
• PD - Strengths

  • Had a large influence in psychology.
  • Allowed for psychoanalysis - a form of therapy - to be discovered.
• PD - Limitations

  • Utilises case studies (little Hans)
  • Highly subjective
  • Utilises concepts that are untestable.
  • Determinist - no free will.