Psychodynamic Approach Essay

Psychodynamic Approach Essay

The psychodynamic approach or perspective was derived by Sigmund Freud and some of his students and followers. This theory by Freud has formed the basis of psychological theories and had helped in many further studies. This theory mainly focuses on the unconscious mind which is considered to be the storehouse of hidden desires and pleasures of a person. This theory mainly tries to examine this aspect of the mind which governs the actions and behaviours of a person. This theory mainly sections the unconscious brain into ego, superego and id. These three aspects will be discussed in detail in the following section.

Freud believed that the thoughts, feelings and perception of the human personality consists of the three above mentioned elements. The first one is the ego which is the conscious thoughts of a person. The second is the superego which mainly consists of the inner desire and pleasure seeking aspects that are hidden in the subconscious mind. The last one is id which is mainly the logical aspect of the brain. The ego as per Freud works towards satisfying the logical reasoning of a person and the superego actually keeps a track of the hidden pleasures or guilt. Freud had used the essay example of an iceberg where ego is represented by the peak, id is the point where the iceberg meets the water and the unconscious aspect is submerged in the water hidden from people. These elements together seem to form the psyche of a person. The psychodynamic perspective makes a number of assumptions that is unique to the framework of psychodynamics. The first assumption is that the psychological processes mostly act outside the conscious mind of a person. In psychology, the activities of the mind are known to be conscious but the aspects like memory, feeling and motives are beyond the control of the conscious mind.

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The second assumption is that the experiences of childhood help in forming the personality of an individual once they grow up. However, the degree to which these events contribute to the formation of personality dynamics is very much unique to this very theory. The events that happen in the initial months or weeks of early life have their impact much later in life. It might take decades for the effect to the surface. This is especially true when a person suffers from some kind of trauma in their childhood. The third assumption is that everything in the mental life happens for a reason. There are no such aspects as random feelings, thoughts, behaviour or feelings but they are basically situated deep inside. This aspect is commonly referred to as psychic causality and while most psychologists believe that thoughts or feelings are never random, some of the psychologists also view psychic causality as it was initially conceived.

The fact that the first theory of psychanalysis was mainly biological does not come as a surprise given the fact that Freud’s background is mostly related to neurology. The initial explanation of psychological phenomena as provided by Freud can be seen to have a number of neurological terms as these two concepts were interrelated loosely during that time. The work by Freud evolved over a span of approximately fifty years or more and this is why it went through a number of changes in the process. Thus, it can be said that psychodynamic theory is an interrelated set of models that work alongside one another. There are mainly three models which are important. These include the topographic model, structural model and lastly psychosexual stage model. The first model was introduced by Freud in his book "The Interpretation of Dreams” which had come out in the year 1900. This model divides the entire mind into namely three sections. The first is a conscious part of the mind which is the storehouse of the information that an individual has been focussing on at the given time willingly. The second is the preconscious stage where the materials could come to the surface at any instance, an individual only has to focus on the information. They are the thoughts that are pushed aside for the time being as the individual has not been focusing on it. The last one is the unconscious mind which is the mysterious part of the brand where all the deep desires are stored. They are the thoughts that are suppressed intentionally like impulses, sexual urges and even aggression. The existence of the unconscious mind is still controversial. The main reason for this is most of his theories were driven out of what the patients had said to Freud. Have you been asked to essay assignments on any topic? Don’t worry, our academic experts are here to help you out.

The second model is the psychosexual stage model and the key elements of this model had been drawn by 1905. This theory reflects on the stages of development which has their own set of challenges and sexual gratification. The stages of psychosexual stages by Freud mainly consisted of oral, anal, latency, Oedipal and lastly genital. These stages are known to even those who belonged to non-analytic psychologists. As per this theory, any kind of over gratification or even frustration leads to a kind of fixation at that very stage which later leads to Oedipal styled personality. This leads to a feeling of competition, orientation towards a personality and even aggression.

The next model is the structural model. While the topographic model was extremely helpful in understanding the way in which people store information, it did not help in understanding another psychological aspect. This is when the structure model was created which consisted of the ego, superego and id which have been discussed above. As per this theory, the interplay of these three aspects is generally reflected in the personality of a person. The ego also helps in defending a person from other sorts of anxiety. These defences generally consist of distortion of personality to some extent. Ego defences in simple words are the mental tactics that a person uses unconsciously and almost reflexively when they see themselves in a threatening position. Another ego defence is denial. While the three models, that is, the topographic model, psychosexual model and lastly the structural model go on to influence contemporary psychology, it is necessary to understand that the psychodynamic theory is always changing and never static. It keeps on evolving as new concepts and theories are brought to light. The current trends within the psychodynamic perspective include the testing of psychodynamic concepts empirically, object relation theory, psychoanalysis and culture and the last one is the challenges and opportunities with respect to neuroscience.

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It can be concluded after the above discussion that psychodynamic theory was created by Sigmund Freud. This theory actually formed the basis for many other studies. The main focus was actually on the subconscious mind which was seen as a storehouse for hidden desires or feelings. The psychodynamic perspective is based on certain sets of assumptions like the activities of the mind is never conscious. The second is the fact that the personality of a person is based on their past experiences especially those of childhood. It is the effect of these events that are reflected within the personality of a human being. The last one is the belief that there is nothing called random thoughts. This theory by Freud has undergone a number of changes and continue to change even today as new findings are brought to light. The psychodynamic perspective is also an interplay of three models. These models are the topographic model, the psychosexual stage model and finally the structural model. This theory of psychodynamic also seems to be related closely to neurosis. If you face any kind of challenges while writing essay complicated then feel free to reach out to the experts of MyAssignmenthelp.com at the earliest. You can even log on to our website to view flawless samples that will help you stay one step ahead of the competition.

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