Clinical Psychology

• Psychodynamic approach


  Focuses on the internal, unconscious mental forces that individuals are largely unaware of, but drive emotions and actions
• Unconscious psychological activities include underlying desires and anxieties that are present deep within the mind yet influence personality and behaviour
• All behaviours have an underlying cause
• Conscious


  The part of the mind we are aware of
• Pre-conscious


  Not quite aware of but just below the surface
• Unconscious


  Drives and instincts we are unaware of locked away
• Id


  The Pleasure Principle (primitive Drives)
• Ego


  The Reality Principle (reduce conflict)
• Superego


  The Morality Principle (what's right and wrong)
• The structure of personality, according to Freud, is divided into 3 parts: Id, Ego, and Superego
• The Superego starts to develop around the age of 5
• Defence Mechanisms


  • Denial
  • Projection
  • Displacement
  • Repression vs Suppression
  • Rationalisation
  • Sublimation (more mature)
• Defence mechanisms are ways to behave or think to protect or "defend" ourselves from full awareness of unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and behaviours
• Freud believed that sexual parts play a big role in development
• Psychodynamic Assessment


  • Types of problems often grouped into symptoms, personality factors, relationship difficulties, and/or behavioural issues
  • Exploring the History and Context of Problems
  • Therapeutic relationship is a vehicle for change
• Psychodynamic formulation


  A hypothesis describing the primary problems and patterns, reviewing the life story, and linking the problems and patterns to the life story using organizing ideas about development
• Components of a psychodynamic formulation

  • A summary of the case that describes the patient's current problems and places them in the context of the patient's current life situation and developmental history
  • A description of nondynamic factors that may have contributed to the psychiatric disorder
  • A psychodynamic explanation of the central conflicts, describing their role in the current situation and their genetic origins in the developmental history
  • A prediction of how these conflicts are likely to affect treatment and the therapeutic relationship
• • Psychodynamic Approaches-The psychodynamic approach focuses on the unconscious behaviours, it uses a therapy relationship as a tool.-Psychodynamic Therapy is insight orientated
  • This approach focuses on helping you gain insight into how your early life experiences affect your present day. This can include taking a long look at your relationship with your parents, early attachment style, or how you interacted with your siblings growing up.