WRITE UP FOR PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE

Submitted by: Savera Niaz, Sania Zaman khan, Sheeza Ali, Sadia Nawaz, Umm e Rubab
Submitted to: Miss Kiran
Date: 31st Oct 2022
PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE
Psychodynamic theory is a collection of psychological theories emphasizing the importance of
drives and other forces in human functioning, especially unconscious drives. The approach holds
that childhood experience is the basis for adult personality and relationships. The psychodynamic
theory originated in Freud’s psychoanalytic theories and includes any theories based on his ideas,
including those by Anna Freud, Erik Erikson, and Carl Jung.

Assumptions

Despite the psychodynamic perspective’s association with Freud and psychoanalysis,

psychodynamic theorists no longer put much stock in some of Freud’s ideas, such as the id, ego,
and superego. Today, the approach is centered around a core set of tenets arising from and
expanding upon Freud’s theories.

1- Our behavior and feelings are motivated by unconscious motives.

2- Our behavior and feelings as adults (including psychological problems) are rooted in our
childhood experiences.

3- All behavior has a cause (usually unconscious), even slips of the tongue. Therefore all
behavior is determined

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

It was proposed by Sigmund Freud by analyzing his hysteric patients through a technique called
free association.

Level of Conscious

The conscious level relates to an individual’s awareness of his environment. It functions when
the individual is awake. It is concerned with thought, feelings, and sensations, memory, IQ.
Consciousness is the sense organ of attention. It is only 1/9 of the total mind. & Through
attention, a person becomes conscious of perceptual stimuli from the outside world within the
organism.

Level of Preconscious
The Preconscious level is described as that part of the mind in which ideas and reactions are
stored and partially forgotten. It also acts as a watchman because it prevents certain painful,
unpleasant, unacceptable, distributing unconscious memories from reaching the conscious mind.
The Preconscious region of the mind is not present at birth but develops in childhood. It is
accessible to both the unconscious and conscious mind. Elements of the unconscious mind are
accessible to the conscious through the preconscious. So, it works as a censor for a person's
wishes and desires.

It is associated with mental activity i.e. the secondary process of thinking.

Level of Unconscious

The unconscious part is the largest part of the mind (9/10). It is the hidden part of an iceberg that
floats underwater. It contains repressed ideas and effects. Elements of the unconscious mind are
accessible to consciousness. They become conscious only through the preconscious mind.
Repressed ideas may reach to consciousness when the censor is overpowered or relaxed (dream
state). It is a storehouse for all the memories, feelings, and responses experienced by the
individual during his entire life.

Unconscious is associated with a particular form of mental activity that is a primary process -
with fulfillment and instinctual discharge. It is associated with the pleasure principle. Primary
process thinking has no conception of time, logic, or circumstances and needs immediate
gratification of their desires, which is very common in infancy. Memories in the unconscious
mind lose their connection with verbal expressions. They can reach consciousness once words
are reapplied to forgotten memory.

STRUCTURAL MODEL OF MIND

According to Sigmund Freud, human personality is complex and has more than a single
component. In his famous psychoanalytic theory, Freud states that personality is composed of
three elements known as the id, the ego, and the superego. These elements work together to
create complex human behaviors. So the three parts are explained below:

The id (Biological component):

It is a primitive part of the personality that pursues only pleasure and instant gratification.
The ego (Psychological Component):

It is that part of the personality that is aware of reality and is in contact with the outside world. It
is the part that considers the consequences of an action and deals with the demands of the id and
superego.

The superego (Social Component):

It contains our social conscience and through the experience of guilt and anxiety when we do
something wrong, it guides us toward socially acceptable behavior.

EXPLANATION:

According to Freud, the ego dwells in the conscious mind and the id and superego are in the area
of our unconscious. Moreover, Freud argued that our personality should be in a state of dynamic
equilibrium (balance) and if there is too much id, superego, or a weak ego then an individual will
become unbalanced and possibly suffer from psychological difficulties. This is the basis of the
psychoanalytic explanation of mental illness.

Psychosexual Development

Freud believed that personality develops through a series of childhood stages in which the
pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous areas. This
psychosexual energy, or libido, was described as the driving force behind behavior. If these
psychosexual stages are completed successfully, the result is a healthy personality. If certain
issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage, fixation can occur.

According to Freud, all human beings pass through a series of five psychosexual stages:

Oral stage 0 to 2 years - During the first year of life, the mouth is the principal organ.

Gratification is by sucking the breast of the mother and bottle.

Anal stage 2 to 3 years - Membranes of the anal region provide pleasure. Not passing fecal
matter also gives pleasure to the child.
Phallic stage 3 to 6 years - self-manipulation of the genital organs; the child also identifies the
group to which he belongs; what is the difference between him and his younger sister.?

Latency stage of 6 to 12 years - this is a stage of psychosexual development when overt sexual
interest is repressed and sublimated. The child's attention is focused on learning skills and other
peer activities.

Genital stage - This is the final stage of psychosexual development reached in puberty when the
deepest feelings of pleasure are said to come from heterosexual relations.

DEFENCE MECHANISMS:

When the ego is not in a position to control anxiety by rational and direct methods, it resorts to
unrealistic methods are called Ego defense mechanisms

It operates on an unconscious level and they tend to deny or distort reality.

CHARACTERISTICS:

There are two characteristics:

a) Denying, falsifying, and distorting realty

b) Operating unconsciously

Some main types of defense mechanisms are:

1. Sublimation:

It is a defense mechanism in which unacceptable desires are redirected into socially accepted
channels.

For example, Anger is not socially accepted if done without a reason but if it is used in
Kickboxing may not be a problem.

2. Repression:

It pushes threatening thoughts back into the unconscious.

For example, posttraumatic stress disorder- PTSD is common in army veterans and victims of
sexual abuse.
 3. Identification:

It is a process that may occur outside and beyond conscious awareness. Hero worshipping an
individual is a sort of identification where an individual identifies himself with a popular hero or
an actor.

4. Displacement:

An individual does something as a substitute for something else.

For example, If a wife gets angry with Husband and her cannot say anything to him, she beats
her child.

5. Projection:

In this mechanism, an individual put blames on others and some unfavorable factors of his
environment. Blaming others for his mistake.

For example, the student comes the ate to the class and excuses themselves by saying excuse the
bus or train was late or traffic jam.

6. Denial:

It is the simplest and most commonly used form of self-defense by going into a state of denial.

For example: If a person is diagnosed as having cancer, they will first get shocked, then start
denying reality saying perhaps that the diagnosis was not proper.

7. Reaction Formation:

It is the replacement in the consciousness of an anxiety-producing impulse or feeling by its

opposite.

For example, A person who hates another cannot accept the painful fact of hating and so shows
extraordinary love towards that person.

WHAT IS JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY?

At its most basic, Jungian analysis, also known as Jungian psychotherapy, is a rigorous,
analytical method of talk therapy that aims to achieve harmony and unification between the
conscious and unconscious elements of the mind.

CORE CONCEPT OF JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Carl Jung was a prolific author who developed Analytical Psychology, a vast body of beliefs.
However, the following basic ideas are crucial to understanding Jungian psychology:

Jung's psychological blueprint

According to Jung, the human psyche is made up of three parts:

1) The self

2) the individual's unconscious

3) the general unconscious

How is Jungian Psychology different from Freud’s Psychoanalysis?

Freud and Jung were contemporaries who often wrote and researched together during their lives.
Jung initially saw Sigmund Freud as a mentor in the study of human experience. However, there
came a certain point where their disparate views and approaches to psychology caused them to
end their professional relationship and friendship. Specifically, Freud chose to end their working
relationship due to Jung’s disagreement with many of the key concepts of Freudian
psychoanalysis. Although there were complex differences between Freud’s and Jung’s
contributions to the understanding of human psychology, below is a brief breakdown of five key
concepts they disagreed upon:

 The Unconscious Mind

Freud saw the unconscious mind as the core center of all repressed thoughts, and memories, and
the driver of sex and aggression. He broke the human mind into three main structures: the id, the
ego, and the superego.
Jung also broke the human mind into three parts, but it revolved around the human psyche. As
noted earlier, to Jung, the unconscious is divided into the ego, the personal unconscious, and the
collective unconscious. The ego is the conscious part of the human mind. The personal
unconscious encompasses all recalled and suppressed memories. Meanwhile, the collective
unconscious refers to the shared knowledge and experiences that humans are born with.

 Religion

Freud believed that religion was an “escape” for the masses that shouldn’t be propagated.
Conversely, Jung believed that religion played a necessary role in individuation. Jung didn’t
practice a specific religion, but he did explore many in his studies, particularly Eastern
philosophies, and religions.

 Sex and Sexuality

This was probably Freud and Jung’s greatest point of conflict. Jung felt that it’s psychic energy
or life force that drives and influences human behavior, not sex and sexuality. In his
understanding of the human psyche, sexuality was just one manifestation of greater psychic
energy. He also felt that the Oedipal impulses explored by Freud were incorrect and that the
mother-and-child relationship was built upon love and protection, instead of sexuality.

 Dreams

Both Freud and Jung believed that dream interpretations were an essential window into the
unconscious mind. Freud explained that dreams were indications of our deepest desires,
unconstrained by societal standards and that they were often symbolically sexual in nature.

Jung disagreed that most dreams were sexual in nature or had hidden or fixed meanings. He
didn’t believe there was a universal dream dictionary that could interpret everyone’s dreams.
Instead, he believed that dreams could hold a variety of meanings based on the dreamer’s unique
associations. In his approach, dreams held their distinct meanings created by both the external
(day-to-day life) and internal (feelings and emotions) world.

Jung's Modern Man in Search of a Soul is a great resource for the practical application of dream
interpretation.

 Parapsychology
Freud completely disagreed with Jung regarding the paranormal as a complete skeptic.
Meanwhile, Jung wholeheartedly believed in the field of parapsychology. Many of his theories
were built upon psychic phenomena, such as his controversial theory of synchronicity. He felt
that many coincidences weren’t actually coincidences, but instead examples of psycho-psychic
phenomena.

Adler’s theory of personality

Adler’s theory of personality is called Individual Psychology. Adler was a colleague of both
Freud and Jung. However, his theory took a different perspective. Adler defined personality as
the individual style of life or characteristic manner of responding to life’s problems.

Adler has some key differences between his theory and that of Freud and Jung. They form the
basis of individual psychology and therefore are an important concept in Adler’s theory. They
are as follows:

1. Inferiority complex

2. Style of life

3. Order of birth

Inferiority Complex

In Adler’s view, every individual suffers from feelings of inadequacy and guilt, i.e, an inferiority
complex which arises from childhood. Overcoming this complex is essential for optimal
personality development. When someone repeatedly fails to achieve mastery or places a lot more
emphasis on some particular weakness then, that may result in an inferiority complex. Adler
believed that people are forever struggling to overcome feelings of inferiority.

Adler also proposed the concept of ‘compensation and over compensation’ which means that
people engage in activities that may overcome their feeling of inferiority. For example, in the
above story, the child wanted to spit at the lion, as that would have compensated for his feeling
of inferiority.

Style of Life
Adler believed that all of us create our sense or approach to living. We have Personal goals
which are our constant source of motivation. These goals provide us with security and help us in
overcoming the feeling of inferiority. For example; in the story above each child responded
differently to the fear of a lion. Morgan and king in their book, introduction to psychology, call
that this highly individualized style grows out of the individual’s unique sense of his or her
inferiorities and the strategies he or she develops to overcome them.

Order of Birth

Adler’s theory also emphasizes the environment and the order of birth. Adler believed that the
first child gets the entire focus of their parents, but when their sibling(s) are born they don’t get
that same attention. The result may be that the child may feel cheated and become somewhat
misfit. A more positive approach Adler recognized is that the firstborn may go on to become
responsible adults and hold the same place and behave like their parents to their siblings. Adler
also associated the following characteristics of people based on their birth:

• Firstborn: natural leaders, high achievers, organized, bossy, punctual, adult-please, obey
rules.

• Middle born: flexible, easy-going, social, peacemaker, independent, generous, and

strong negotiator.

• Last child: risk-taker, outgoing, creative, self-centered, competitive, bored easily, like to
be pampered, and has a good sense of humor.

• The only child: close to parents, self-control, leader, mature, dependable, unforgiving,
private, sensitive.

Conclusion

The basic assumption of Adler’s theory is that human behavior is purposeful and goal-directed.
Each one of us can choose and create. Our personal goals are the source of motivation. The goals
that provide us with security and help us in overcoming feelings of inadequacy are important in
our personality development. Adler’s theory also forms Adlerian therapy to help people with
their mental health conditions. It’s holistic, goal-directed, and socially oriented in its approach.
ANALYSIS OF PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE

Strengths

Psychodynamic theory has several strengths that account for its continued relevance in modern
psychological thinking. First, it accounts for the impact of childhood on adult personality and
mental health. Second, it explores the innate drives that motivate our behavior. It’s in this way
that psychodynamic theory accounts for both sides of the nature/nurture debate. On the one hand,
it points to the way the unconscious mental processes people are born with influence their
thoughts, feelings, and behavior. On the other, it emphasizes the influence of childhood
relationships and experiences on later development.

Weaknesses

Despite its strengths, the psychodynamic theory has several weaknesses, too. First, critics often
accuse it of being too deterministic, and therefore, denying that people can exercise conscious
free will. In other words, by emphasizing the unconscious and the roots of personality in
childhood experience, psychodynamic theory suggests that behavior is pre-determined and
ignores the possibility that people have personal agency.

Psychodynamic theory is also criticized for being unscientific and unfalsifiable—it is impossible
to prove the theory to be false. Many of Freud’s theories were based on single cases observed in
therapy and remained difficult to test. For example, there’s no way to empirically research the
unconscious mind. Yet, some psychodynamic theories can be studied, which has led to scientific
evidence for some of its tenets.