Psychodynamic

• Sigmund Freud claimed that early childhood is the basis for our later criminal behaviour. There are 3 parts of the mind: the ego (rational and sensible control), the id (selfish and animalistic) and the superego (our moral conscience). A healthy personality requires balance between these three.
• The id is located in the unconscious. It is instinctive and animal. It contains powerful, selfish, pleasure seeking needs and drives such as the desire for food, sleep, sex and shelter. It is governed by the pleasure principle.
• The superego contains our moral conscience and moral rules, which we learn through interactions with our parents during early primary socialisation. If we act contrary to the superego, it punishes us with feelings of guilt and anxiety.
• The ego learns from the reality principle, and acts as a compromise and mediator to both the id and the superego.
• Psychoanalysts such as Freud point to traumas and poor relationships with parental figures during childhood being leading predictors in criminality. This can prompt an unstable relationship between the id, ego and superego.
• A weakly developed superego equates poor moral control and a greater chance of submitting to the id's desires.
• A too harsh and unforgiving superego means that an individual has a heightened and intense feeling of constant guilt, and the desire to be punished. This meas they may engage in compulsive repeat offending to achieve this punishment.
• A deviant superego, as a result of a positive relationship with parental figures, but a relationship based on deviant ideals, means that it will not inhibit criminal acts that have been normalised.
• A strength of psychoanalysis is that it understands the importance of childhood socialisation and relationships with the development of criminal behaviour.
• Psychoanalytical explanations have had considerable influence on policies created to deal with, and prevent, crime and deviance.
• A limitation of psychoanalysis would be that critics doubt the existence of the unconscious mind. If we know it exists, does it really?
• Another limitation of psychoanalysis would be that it is deeply subjective as it relies on personal interpretation, and means other researchers must accept the psychoanalyst's perspective and skill as being able to interpret the inner workings of the mind, despite this process being scientifically ambiguous.
• Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory suggests that a child must have a close relationship with their primary caregiver (mainly this is the mother) from birth to age 5, for the child to develop normally.
• If this attachment between child and mother is broken, it can lead to the child being unable to form relationships, platonic, romantic or otherwise.
• According to Bowlby, maternal deprivation, this can lead to affectionless psychopathy and criminal behaviour.
• Bowlby bases his theory on a study of 44 juveniles thieves who had been referred to a child guidance clinic. 39% had suffered maternal deprivation prior to the age of 5 compared to only 5% of the control group.
• A strength of MD is that Bowlby's research is its use of supporting evidence. (see 44 thieves)
• Another strength is that it shows the need to consider the role of parent-child relationships in criminality, suggesting preventative measures.
• A limitation of MD is its use of a retrospective study. Both delinquents and mothers had to recall past events. This could be problematic, especially when recalling emotional incidents.
• Another limitation of MD is that it doesn't explain why the other 61% of children were delinquent.
• Bowlby's own later study of 60 children who had been separated from their parents for long periods before they were found, found no evidence of affection-less psychopathy.
• Bowlby's theory overestimates the impact of childhood behaviour in impacting criminality later down the line.
• Sammons and Putwain noted that the idea of a link between maternal deprivation and criminality is no longer accepted.
• Psychoanalysis is based on Freud's theory of personality. Treatment is very lengthy (Freud saw his patients 5 times a week, often for years) - it involves bringing repressed, unconscious thoughts back to the present for evaluation.
• Freud used hypnosis and free association - patients would lie down and Freud would pick up on any 'Freudian slips'.
• Aichhorn applied psychoanalytical ideas to policies for treating young offenders at the institution he supervised. Because of poor early parental relationships, these offenders hadn't developed a superego. Aichhorn rejected the harsh environments of young offenders' institutions at the time (the 1920s) and treated the children by providing them with happy and pleasant experiences.
• One of Freud's most famous patients is Dora, who, in one session, was talking about a little niece who whispered in her ear: 'you can't imagine how much I hate that person', pointing to her mother. Freud interpreted, through free association etc., that she was caught in a conflict between love and hate.
• Psychoanalysis as a procedure doesn't seem too effective. Eysenck found that only 44% of psychoanalysis patients treated for neurosis showed improvement, as against 72% of patients treated by hospitals or GPs.
• Psychoanalysis is costly. Because of the amount of time it takes, and the resources required, it is not used on a wide scale, meaning it has limited mass application.
• Psychoanalysis is subjective, so there is opportunity for abuse. This treatment allows the psychoanalyst to judge what is normal and abnormal. For example, Freud believed that homosexuality was abnormal, and this can pave the way for abuse.
• A patient could equally uncover very painful memories that were deliberately repressed.
• A case study used for testing the benefits of psychoanalytic theories was carried out by Oakridge in 1968. He locked a small group of male offenders in a room for 11 days, during which time they were kept nude and given large amounts of LSD. Follow up research found that offenders were one third more likely to commit crime again than those who had not been subjected to the 'Treatment'.