psychodynamic

•  role of the unconscious is to store drives and instincts that can have a huge impact on our behaviour and personality. It contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed, and can be accessed during dreams (parapraxes).
• Id operates on the pleasure principle ‘greed and want’. it is mainly made up of unconscious drives and instincts. it is present from the time of birth and is entirely selfish all the way through life. Ego is the balance between id and superego and works on the reality principle. It develops around the age of 2 and helps to prevent conflict between id and superego. It does this by having defence mechanisms. Superego is formed at the phallic stage around the age of 5. It works on the morality principle and it senses right from wrong. It punishes themselves through guilt.
• Defence mechanisms: There are 3 key defence mechanisms: repression, denial, and displacement. Repression is the forcing out of a distressing memory out of the conscious mind. Denial is refusing to acknowledge the aspects of reality of a certain event. Displacement is the transferring of distressing feeling out onto a substitute target.
• oral stage and is the focus of pleasure in the mouth such as the baby desiring the mother’s breast. The consequence of this oral fixation is being sarcastic, critical, biting nails, and smoking.
•  anal stage. It is where the focus of pleasure is on the anus. Child gains pleasure from expelling or withholding faeces. The Consequence of this is anal retentive leading to perfectionism, and obsession. Another consequence is anal expulsion leading to messiness and thoughtlessness.
•  phallic stage and is developed around the age of 3-6. It is where the focus of pleasure is on the genital area. The consequence is a phallic personality and here they become narcissistic and reckless.
• Latency is where past conflicts are repressed.
• Genital is where sexual desires become more conscious. It normally comes alongside puberty. The consequence of this is difficult forming heterosexual relationships.
• Most of the theory that Freud had invested into was mainly untestable as it was not representative for all of the population as it can be seen as subjective as it may not apply to everyone as it was just based on one person’s experience. Karl Popper, when was a philosopher, argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the criteria of scientific falsification. It also does not allow empirical testing such as the Oedipus Complex as itnis said to be unconscious which is difficult to test. It suggests that his theory was not real science rather than established facts.
• real world application psychoanalysis which was a form of psychological therapy which treated mental illnesses excluding schizophrenia. It treated them psychologically not physically which was done before. It was done by getting repressed feelings into the conscious mind so they were able to be dealt with. Today it is now called counselling. This shows that psychodynamic approach allows a new approach to treatments. But cannot be used everyone such as people who have schizophrenia due to lack of grip on reality and delusional thinking
• Freud's theory explanatory power, even though it may have been controversial. psychodynamic approach had remained dominant up until the first half of the 20th century, as it allowed people to understand how moral and personality develops. It also helps to create a development of gender identity and the origins of psychological disorders. His theory also helps us create an understanding between our childhood and later development and the relationships with our parents. This clearly shows that it has a positive effect on psychology and possibly literature.