Psychodynamic Theories: Comparative Matrix
Sigmund Freud:
Psychoanalysis
All human motivation reduced to sex
and aggression
People have choice in shaping their
personality.
Present behaviour is caused by past
experiences.
Placed a very heavy emphasis on
unconscious.
Three provinces of mind
1.) Id - is the primitive and
instinctual part of the mind
that contains sexual and
aggressive drives and hidden
memories
2.) Superego - operates as a
moral conscience,
3.) Ego - the realistic part that
mediates between the
desires of the id and the
super-ego.
Alfred Adler: Carl Jung: Melanie Klein:
Individual Psychology Analytical Psychology Object Relations Theory
Motivation is mostly by social Each of us is motivated not only by Importance of the first 4-6 months
influences and the striving for repressed experiences but also by after birth, Insisted that the infant’s
success and superiority certain emotionally toned drives (hunger, sex and so forth) are
experiences inherited from our directed to an object- a breast, a
People are largely responsible for ancestors penis, a vagina, and so on.
who they are.
People’s lives are greatly influenced Interpersonal relations are the result
Present behaviour is shaped by by inherited images called collective of the very early tendency of infants
people’s view of the future. unconscious. to relate to partial objects which
gives their experiences an unrealistic
Psychologically healthy people are or fantasy-like quality.
aware of what they are doing and
why they are doing it.
•The one dynamic force behind
people’s behavior is the striving for
success or superiority
•People’s subjective perceptions
shape their behavior and personality
•Personality is unified and self-
consistent
•The value of all human activity
must be seen from the viewpoint of
social interest
•The self-consistent personality
structure develops into a person’s
style of life Style of life is molded by
Anxieties:
Neurotic Anxiety
Moral Anxiety
Realistic Anxiety
Defense mechanisms
1.) Found in everyone
2.) Protect the ego from the
pain of anxiety
3.) Operate only on an
unconscious level
people’s creative power
Abnormal Development
Neurotics
Exaggerated physical deficiencies
Pampered lifestyle
Neglected lifestyle
Safeguarding techniques
1.) Limited mostly to the
construction of neurotic
style of life
2.) Protect the person’s fragile
self-esteem from public
disgrace
3.) Can be partly conscious