Psychodynamic approach

• The psychodynamic approach

  A perspective that describes the different forces, conscious and unconscious that operate in our brain
• The structure of personality

  Freud described personality as 'tripartite'

  • Id
  • Ego
  • Superego
• Id

  • Operates on the pleasure principle
  • Selfish motives
• Ego

  • Works on the reality principle
  • The mediator between the two other parts
  • Manages conflict by defence mechanisms
• Superego

  • Formed at the end of the phallic stage
  • Sense of right and wrong
• Defence mechanisms

  Unconscious strategies the ego uses to manage the conflict between the id and superego

  • Displacement
  • Regression
  • Denial
• Displacement

  Transferring emotions from the source of them onto a substitute target
• Repression

  Forcing a distressing memory out of the concious mind
• Denial

  Refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality
• Psycosexual stages

  • Oral
  • Anal
  • Phallic
  • Latency
  • Genital
• Oral 0 - 1 years


  • Focus of pleasure is the mouth
  • Unresolved conflict: Oral fixation e.g smoking
• Anal 1 - 3 years 


  • Focus of pleasure is the anus due to going to the toilet
  • Unresolved conflict: Anal retentive - Perfectionist
  • Alan expulsive - Messy
• Phallic 3 - 6 years


  • Focus of pleasure is on genital area
  • Unresolved conflict: Phallic personality - narcissistic, reckless
• Latency

  Earlier conflicts are repressed
• Genital

  Sexual desires become conscious alongside puberty
• Evaluation - Strength - Real world application

  Developed into psychotherapy - the idea of looking into the conscious e.g dreams

  Counterpoint - Anyone with neuroses (schizophrenia) cannot use it
• Evaluation - Limitation - lack of evidence

  This is all based on one case study, little hans.

  Lacks a scientific approach
• Evaluation - Limitation - alternative explanations

  There are many other explanations for peoples outcomes other than the phsycostages
• Freud used the analogy of an iceberg to describe the conscious and unconscious mind