The Psychodynamic Approach

• Freud's (1909) theory aimed to provide an explanation for hysteria or illness of the mind that had physical manifestation
• The ID is driven by the "Pleasure Principal" seeking pleasure regardless of consequence
• Sex, self-preservation, and pain are natural sources of pleasure for the ID
• Freud (1909) called babies "bundles of ID" as they act purely on their desires with no ego or super-ego to balance it out
• The ID is the only innate part of identity
• The role of the mother is to balance the desires of the ID with the reality of what the baby can realistically have; it must be satisfied but not overly
• The ID can be under gratified when not given enough of what it demands or over gratified when given too much
• successful resolution is when the ID is perfectly balanced; not over or under gratified
• Ego works on the reality principle by giving the individual an understanding of what they can and cannot have
• The ego ensures the desires of the ID are fulfilled in a way that is realistically acceptable
• the Ego develops at age 3 after the anal stage of development
• the ID and superego oppose each other fundamentally leaving it up to the ego to balance the intrapsychic conflict between them
• The superego works on the morality principle providing a moral standard for the individual to act and presenting the "ideal" self
• Freud's theory of personality (1909) involves the ego, superego and ID
• Freud (1909) theorised 5 personalities; healthy, neurotic, psychotic, psychopathic, and deviant superego
• Healthy personality is where the ego dominates and balances the ID and superego
• Neurotic personality is when the superego dominates the ego and ID
• Psychotic personality is when the ID dominates the ego and superego
• Psychopathic personality is when the superego does not develop leaving the ID to dominate the ego unchallenged
• deviant superego is when the superego dominates the ego and ID however with incorrect morals
• Freud's (1909) theory of mind incorporates the conscious, preconscious and subconscious
• The conscious mind is all thoughts an individual is aware of such as those in the working memory
• the preconscious mind is all thoughts that take conscious effort to acknowledge such as recall from the long term memory
• The unconscious mind is all thoughts that we are not aware of at all as they cause extreme unpleasant emotions that could cause the collapse of the conscious mind
• The ego uses defence mechanisms to push traumatic events into the subconscious and control intrapsychic conflict between the id and superego
• 6 defence mechanisms; denial, projection, displacement, repression, regression, and reaction formation
• Denial is refusal to accept a traumatic event
• projection is attributing negative feelings about ones self to another person
• Displacement is redirecting anger onto another individual
• repression is not allowing acknowledgement of a traumatic event
• regression is returning to a childlike state and behaviours in response to a traumatic event
• Reaction formation is hiding true feelings by acting the opposite
• The psychodynamic approach follows psychic determinism meaning all adult behaviour is rooted in childhood and determined by successful or unsuccessful resolution of the psychosexual stages of development
• Stages of psychosexual development (Freud 1909); oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital
• The oral stage (0 - 1) is when the ID fixates on oral pleasure such as sucking on a thumb or a dummy
• The oral stage (0 - 1) focuses on developing trust, reliance, independence, and affection
• over gratification of the oral stage (0 - 1) results in the child be naive and overly trusting
• under gratification of the oral stage (0 - 1) causes the child to be distrusting of others and under affectionate
• successful resolution of the oral stage (0 - 1) results in a healthy independence
• The anal stage (1 - 3) is when the ID fixates on the pleasure that comes from the relief of a bowel movement