Psychodynamic Theory

Psychology is not just philosophical speculation and reasoning over the years it has evolved and it is now also recognised as a science, to understand what psychology is all about it is necessary to know it’s origins and the theorist who brought it out of obscurity, Sigmund Freud. He developed the Psychodynamic or Psychoanalytical perspective to enable better understanding of human behaviour these concepts will be discussed further later in this study.

After Freud opened the gateway other perspectives and approaches have been developed, now with five main areas of psychology – Cognitive, Behaviourist, Biopsychology and Humanist approaches. For a comparison with the Psychodynamic theory, Behaviourist Theory will be discussed. Psychodynamic theory is referred to in psychological literature more than any other. This is the stereotypical psychology – looking into your past, discovering hidden desires, rummaging through the unconscious.

It is the most radical of the five theories, and by far the most criticised – accused of being sexist, seeing the human population as ill, and considering sex and hostility as the only motivation for human actions. However, this theory has proven to be one of the most influential forces in the twentieth century. Sigmund Freud believed that humans are driven from birth by two innate instincts Eros the life instinct – the self-preserving and erotic instinct and Thanatos the death instinct – the self destructive, aggression and cruelty instinct.

These are controlled by a free floating sexual energy, the libido and is seen to be the single most important motivating force in adult life, driven from birth to enhance bodily pleasure. There is a lot more to the mind than meets the eye, much like an iceberg – only the very tip is showing. He is the one who came up with the concept of one’s unconscious – the part of the mind where desires and memories are stored, unrecognised, only hinted at through dreams or slips of the tongue or the ‘Freudian slip’ as it is more widely known.

Rallying between the conscious and unconscious are the id, ego, and superego – separate and conflicting forces, requiring a balance for mental health and normal behaviour. The id is a person’s animal force, their need to satisfy basic psychological needs. The superego is the ‘ideal’ force, the civilised, competent figure the person strives to be. The ego sort of regulates the two, keeping the id satisfied while staying within the guidelines of the superego. The strength of each individual force is a factor in personality – if a person’s superego is too strong, they are seen as rigid and guilty.

If a person’s id is too strong, they are seen as delinquent and antisocial (Boeree, 2000). The psychodynamic theory also established the idea that what happens in a person’s childhood is one of the most important factors in personality development, especially traumatic experiences. The theory states that children who go through such things repress their memories, and this is the cause of adulthood mental disease. In order to further understand how personalities are shaped during childhood, Freud thought up the psychosexual stages.

This shows the development of the id and the establishment of pleasure-sensitive areas known as erogenous zones. This also brings about the idea of fixations. Such things are developed in the Oral stage of a child’s development from birth to eighteen months where the mouth is the source of nourishment and pleasure an example of this is seen in a nursing infant and if deprived of nourishment will fixate their pleasure seeking energies on this stage, the need to constantly stimulate the mouth through smoking, biting and chewing.

The next is the Anal stage between eighteen and thirty-six months focus on bladder and bowl elimination and is seen as a source of pleasure when the child is able to control them, this is why toilet training usually happens around this age and if not mastered an adult would be seen to be anal expulsive or anal retentive. Phallic stage between age three and five years where sexual energy is focused on the genitals. Oedipus and Electra complex in which the child unconsciously wishes to posses the parent of the opposite sex and rid themselves of the parent of the same sex.

The result of this desire in boys would experience castration anxiety which would drive them to identify with their fathers. If there is no male figure in this stage of a child’s development it is thought that the child will have problems with authority figures later in life as he has never had the chance to conclude this stage. Freud’s explanation for the female development claiming that they would experience penis envy (a realisation they do not have a penis) they would eventually overcome by achieving motherhood and having their own baby.

Latency stage from six years through puberty here the child will develop their confidence and mastery of the world around them. He believed that during this stage their experiences and excitations of previous stages are repressed and children develop infantile amnesia being unable to remember much of their earlier years. The Genital stage from twelve years upwards to adulthood is the culmination of the psychosexual development and the fixing of sexual energy in the genitals.

This eventually directs humans towards sexual intercourse and the beginnings of the next cycle of life (Breger, 2009). John Watson a theorist who rejected the idea of introspection and every part of the psychodynamic theory, suggested the Behaviourist view is an objective, experimental branch of natural science who are interested in prediction and control of behaviour, most of the early research was carried out on animals before moving onto humans.

This is an approach that believes people are born ‘Tabula rasa’ literally meaning ‘blank slate’, that all human behaviour is infinitely plastic and therefore is ultimately explainable in terms of the experiences that an organism goes through rather than any genetic predisposition of characteristics that the organism possesses. The relationship between the environment and the organism is seen as a straight line, in that the organisms act on their environment, which in turn provides rewards and punishments to determine the future probability of a response occurring.

Behaviours are acquired or learned in one of two main ways, these are classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Examples of classical conditioning applied to real life are things like, taste aversion, learned emotions, advertising and development of phobias. Use of operant conditioning is referred to as behaviour modification such as in a classroom or therapy settings (Wyman, 2005). Watson suggests that children have three basic emotions, fear, rage and love and attempted to prove that these emotions could be artificially conditioned.

The experiment of Little Albert is his most famous and controversial experiment, Watson and a graduate assistant named Rosalie Rayner conditioned a small child to fear a white rat. They accomplished this by repeatedly pairing the white rat with a loud, frightening clanging noise. They were also able to demonstrate that this fear could be generalized to other white, furry objects. The ethics of the experiment are often criticized today, especially because the child’s fear was never deconditioned. Another example of classical conditionning is Ian Pavlov ‘Dogs’, in this experiment he noted that dogs would salivate before the delivery of food.

In a series of well-known experiments, he presented a variety of stimuli before the presentation of food, eventually finding that, after repeated association, a dog would salivate (response) to the presence of a stimulus (noise) other than food (Bitterman, 2006). The most influential of all behaviourists is B F Skinner he is famous for his research on operant conditioning and negative reinforcement. He developed a device called the ‘cumulative recorder’ which showed rates of responding as a sloped line. Using this device, he found that behaviour did not depend on the preceding stimulus as Watson and Pavlov maintained.

Instead, Skinner found that behaviours were dependent upon what happens after the response, therefore, using positive and negative reinforcement responses can be conditioned to a stimulus, those that are rewarded will increase and those that are not will decrease (Rubin, 2003). Not unlike other perspectives Behaviourism has gone through many transformations in the years since is conception by John Watson, one of the recent extensions in this approach has been the development of Social Learning theory. This theory is most relevant to criminology.

Bandura suggests that we learn through observation, imitation and modelling of a significant other, people learn through the outcome of those behaviours and later a person will form an idea which serves as a guide for action. A significant other could be someone one aspires to become, not necessarily family, it could be someone famous for instance. If a person sees another being rewarded or punished for a certain behaviour they may or may not copy that behaviour, what is seen as a punishment or reward for one person may not be for another.

However, if it is a person they aspire to be children in particular tend to emulate this behaviour either good or bad. Part of this study was the ‘Bobo doll’ experiment, he demonstrated that children learn and imitate behaviours they have observed in other people. The children observed an adult acting violently toward a Bobo doll. When the children were later allowed to play in a room with the Bobo doll, they began to imitate the aggressive actions they had previously observed (Green, 2003).

Psychology has changed its face over the many years since Freud first introduced the psychodynamic theory putting forward a different way of trying to understand why people behave the way they do, moving onto the Behaviourist approach which completely refutes Freud’s theory by refusing to accept that people are born with natural innate instincts and that consciousness is the subject matter of psychology, who believe that psychology is about behaviour and activities and that the consciousness is not definable.

They leave a huge gaping whole in their theory relating to perception, sensations, memories and imagination. Whereas Freud simply focused on his masculinity and the inferiority of the female population, although he can be forgiven for this as his theory came about in the Victorian era and this theory was a major breakthrough in history and is still one of the biggest thinkers and without whom psychologists and the like would not know as much about ourselves as people do. References

Breger, L. (2009). From Instinct to Identity: The Development of Personality. 1st ed. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. 1-18. Grieve, K. (2006). A student’s A-Z of Psychology. 1st ed. California: Juta Academic. Hayes, N. (1993). A first course in Psychology. 12th ed. Cheltenham: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd. Bitterman, M. (2006). Classical Conditioning since Pavlov. Review of General Psychology. 10 (4), 365-375. Wyman, R. (2005). Experimental anaylasis of nature-nurture interactions. JEZ. 03A (6), 415-421. Boeree, G. (2000). Freud and Psychoanalysis. Available: http://webspace. ship. edu/cgboer/psychoanalysis. html#Johann_Reil. Last accessed 10 November 2010 Geen, C. (2003). Transmission of aggression through immitation of aggressive models. Available: http://psychclassics. asu. edu/Bandura/bobo. htm. Last accessed 10 Nov 2010. Rubin, J. (2003). From Pavlov to Skinner Box. Available: http://www. juliantrubin. com/bigten/skinnerbox. html. Last accessed 10 November 2010

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was the father of psychodynamic therapy. His work built upon what had been done by Brewer before him. One of his patients Anna O labelled his method as being ‘the talking cure’*. During this essay I shall briefly explain Freud’s main theories on the human personality and then examine how these can help me to understand and change my life.

* An Introduction To Counselling. P80

Freud believed the human psyche is divided into three areas the conscious, preconscious and unconscious*. In the unconscious exists the Id. This is the instinctual life force within us. Two forces are at work within the Id, Eros a drive for love and Thanatos a drive for destruction**. In our day-to-day lives we are unaware of the effects our Id has upon us, Freud argues that hidden forces from the Id govern most of the things we want to do. The Id has no time dimension and memories trapped within it remain emotionally charged***.

* Teach Yourself Counselling. P121 ** Teach Yourself Counselling. P121 *** Mastering Psychology. P242

The Ego helps to mediate between the Id and the outside world, known as the ‘reality principle’*. It is the part of ourselves, which enables us to fit into society. It takes on board social norms and lets the Id have its way when it will be practically possible and allowable by society.

* Mastering Psychology. P242

From society and our parents we develop the Superego. This provides us with a ‘moral principle’*. It is basically the internalisation of parental and societal rules. The Superego is largely unconscious though we do become aware of certain thing when they move into the preconscious.

* Mastering Psychology. P243

Through psychodynamic therapy I discovered that I had repressed many memories. I believe these were being stored in my unconscious. These memories were having a profound effect upon my life although I did not realise this at the time. I went through almost seven years of bullying when I was at school. When I left school and continued with my life I was always aware of this fact but I had lost many of the details over time and could not recall much about it.

When I reached twenty years of age I developed clinical depression and had panic attacks. I was forced leave university with only six months left to completion. My home became my sanctuary and for a period of three months I did not leave it. Through many years of differing therapy I have begun to understand more about what happened within my mind to bring me to that point.

The memories I had storied in my unconscious, though I was largely unaware of them, were distorting my view of the world. It was “frightening outside”; I could “get hurt if I left home”. These were not a realistic feeling about my current circumstances but were a reflection of the fears I had held during the time of my bullying.

I was extremely depressed because I felt “useless”, “ugly” and that my life was “pointless”. Again I now feel that these thoughts grew from trapped memories. I had been called many names whilst at school; I had been treated very badly facing physical harm on a daily basis. I was treated as an outcast by nearly everyone; I was spat at, ignored, teased and put down.

During therapy I began to see in my mind a monster. It was black with red eyes. I had often had nightmares involving such a creature. Freud regarded dreams as “the royal road to the unconscious”*. He placed great emphasis upon analysing them, and along with free association dreams became the centre of his psychoanalysis methods. Freud believed that dreams where a sign of the unconscious mind at work and proof that his theories were correct.

* Freud – A Beginners Guide p25 & p57

Over time I realised that this monster contained all of the negative emotions other people had placed onto me. Even seven years after the bullying stopped this monster was still telling me I was useless and ugly and deserved no more than to be beaten up.

Through therapy memories slowly began to emerge from out of the unconscious. It was very painful at first as the strength of feeling contained in the memories was so strong. Overtime these feelings have weakened, I still believe there are some buried memories but many have now risen out of my Id and have been largely dealt with in my conscious. I don’t believe the monster has gone but I seem to have taken much of its power away.

I believe my Ego is caught up in this tangled web as well. I feel that while I was at school I may have internalised some of the negatives messages into my Ego. In some ways my Ego stopped looking after me. Through psychodynamic therapy I have begun to rebuild my Ego almost teaching it that the things that happened to me were not my fault and that I do deserve to be looked after by myself, through my Ego.

Freud divided a child’s life into a number of differing developmental stages. Stage one is the oral phase*. Normally occurring between being born and around two years of age. It involves a discovery of your world and surroundings through the use of your mouth. Sucking to feed provides both nutrients and closeness with mother. Any available object will be tested by being placed in the mouth and explored that way.

Mastering Psychology. P247, Teach Yourself Counselling. P123, An Introduction To Counselling. P81

Personally I have no memories of this period in my own life. It is thought though that people sometimes fall back into child like behaviour to receive comfort from these things. I smoke and therefore enjoy the aspect of putting a cigarette in my mouth and sucking it tending to do this most when stressed. Some people argue this is regressive behaviour and links back into my oral stage.

The second stage occurs between the ages of two to four. Called the Anal Stage* it is the period when a child discovers that he/she produces faeces. Apparently the child then experiments with control. Being able to both let go and hold on to the faeces. Freud argued that if parents handle this stage of development badly a child could become afraid of letting go of things as they grew older or overly controlling.

Teach Yourself Counselling. P123, Mastering Psychology. P247

The phallic stage* develops between the ages of four to seven. Freud argued that the genitals become the main interest or focus to the child during this period. It is also during this time that the Superego develops. This is the time when Freud’s infamous Oedipus* and Electra Complexes* are said to occur.

Teach Yourself Counselling. P124. Mastering Psychology. P247

Little boys will fall in love with their mother and girls with their father. Girls will develop penis envy and hate their mother for not giving them one. Boys will hate their father believing that he wishes to castrate them and stop them being with their mother.

After this latency will set in, this period is believed to be the best time for children to learn. Then puberty starts and Freud believed that the whole process repeats itself thus enabling any damage incurred during the first time round to be repaired.

I can imagine that during puberty these processes had a difficult time repairing any damage to me, as it was during this time that I was being bullied. I can’t directly link any of this to the three stages but from experience I know that damage done during this time is far more difficult to deal with than damage done later in life when the personality is fully formed.

In this final stage of the essay I shall examine four of Freud’s ideas on how the mind copes with experiences it does not want to deal with, these are called defences. Freud listed over twenty-five differing defences created by the mind to protect itself. The first one I shall look at is repression. Repression is when memories are hidden in the unconscious. The Ego may not have been able to cope with the events attached to the memory and so stored them away where the person could not access them.

* Teach Yourself Counselling. P183/184. Mastering Psychology. P245.

This is sometimes known as Ego Censorship*. Personally this is one defence I feel I have had a lot of experience with. Most of my time at school was somehow lost. , who were at school with me, would talk about fellow students, teaches and events involving the three of us and I would have no recollection what so ever of what they were talking about.

* Counselling course class notes

Many of the things that happened to me I only began to remember after they spoke about them. It was very strange, almost as if they were talking about people and places I had never been. It was quite a disconcerting experience. The experience would come into my conscious at sometimes though. Through dreams certain memories would come alive. If I was extremely depressed suddenly a dam would break and a flood of bad memories would pour on top of me and yet the next day I would not be able to recall what they were.

Another defence is regression*. This is the idea that people sometimes return to behaviour linked with the developmental stages. This can involve many things including crying, taking to ones bed or comfort eating. As I said earlier smoking is also connected with this as it is seen as an oral behaviour. It is noticeable that many people including myself smoke far more when stressed.

* An Introduction To Counselling. P84. Teach Yourself Counselling. P183.

I do recall, at the time of my worst depression that I took to my bed, often lying in the foetal position and crying. It was comforting in some way. As if I was safer lying in my bed than having to be in the world outside. It reminds me of the time when at night I suddenly feel scared in the dark on the way back from the bathroom but I know when I get into bed and covered up again I will be quite safe.

It is also quite possible from personal experience to deny painful events. Denial* is a term, which has become very mainstream; he or she is in denial. Looking back on my life I can see a number of times when I was living in denial. One of my partners who I was with for about six months was patently not for me. I knew this deep down but did not want to be alone and so I denied it.

* Teach Yourself Counselling. P179.

I continued in the relationship feeling more and more unhappy though not allowing myself to see the real reason, which I did actually know. Eventually the other person ended it and I was forced to deal with life without that partner. It did not take long to realise that I was much happier without them than I was with them but I had not allowed myself to see any possibility of a happy life without them in it.

I think everyone has been guilty of displacement at one time in his or her life. Displacement* is when a person replaces the true object of their emotions with another. If someone is angry they may kick a door instead of kicking the person they are angry with. In a sense this defence can be seen as a very positive thing. The Ego allowing aggression out where it will do less harm all round.

* Teach Yourself Counselling. P179/180

So during this essay I have briefly examined some of Freud’s theories on human development and growth and thought about how these theories can help me to see my life in a different way. In some cases they already have as I have done psychodynamic therapy for some time now. Other areas of his theories leave me slightly baffled and cold, as they strike no resonance with me, though it may be argued that that’s because I don’t want them to.

Charlotte King Orion 12 Psychology EXAM QUESTIONS Evaluate methods used by the psychodynamic approach. One of the methods used by the psychodynamic approach is case studies. Case studies are used to practice their therapy on to see if it actually works. The therapy created by Sigmund Freud, is called psychoanalysis. An example of one of the case studies would be the case study of Little Hans. Hans was at the age where he noticed he had a penis and therefore played with it a lot. His mother noticed this and told him to stop it otherwise she would call the doctor and get him to cut it off.

Hans later on developed a phobia of horses, so his father got in touch with Freud and told him about Hans’ strange behaviour and he suggested that he was scared of horses because of the large penis. Later on, Freud and Hans’ father discovered that he had a phobia of horses because he saw his father as a rival and he apparently had a large penis. He saw his father as a rival because he acquired the Oedipus complex which meant that he had a sexual desire for his mother and therefore wanted to get rid of the father.

Freud interpreted that the horses in the phobia were symbolic of the father, and that Hans feared that the horse (father) would bite (castrate) him as punishment for the incestuous desires towards his mother. With Hans feeling threatened by his dad, Freud thinks that he comes up with a defence mechanism known as ‘identification with the aggressor’. This is where Hans would bond with his father by adopting his mannerisms and actions, this way; he will not feel hostile towards him. Weeks after, Hans’ phobia improved and at the end of the phobia he had two fantasies. One of them being that his father was the granddad not the dad.

And the other about his bottom and penis being removes then being replaces with larger ones. After recovering from the phobia, Hans’ father reassured Hans that he had no intention of cutting his penis off. One weakness of the case study method is that it cannot set precedent for all cases with similar patients. For example, psychoanalysis might work on Hans but it might not work on someone else who has a phobia of horses. However, case studies over history of psychology have been able to provide clinicians with valuable information about different psychological illnesses.

Meaning, a particular study can be used as a means of insight into life with the illness. Another downside to the case study method is the completely open and uncontrolled environment in which it takes place. This eliminates its usefulness as an indicator of cause and effect since the variables in the study are uncontrolled. This makes it too difficult or presumptuous to state that one value correlates in any way to another. Instead, a clinician can develop a hypothesis on this relationship and use another research method to determine support for, or refutation for, their hypothesis.

This is why it was mentioned earlier that case studies can lay down the foundations for further psychological research. Another method is the use dream analysis. This is where dreams are looked into more depth to figure out their true meaning. Freud considered dreams to be the ‘royal road to the unconscious’ as it is in dreams that the ego’s defences are lowered so that some of the repressed material comes through to awareness. Freud distinguished between the manifest content of a dream (what the dreamer remembers) and the latent content, the symbolic meaning of the dream (i. e. the underlying wish).

The manifest content is often based on the events of the day. The process the underlying wish is translated into the manifest content is called dream-work. The purpose of dream work is to transform the forbidden wish into a non-threatening form, reducing anxiety and allowing us to continuing sleeping. Dream work involves the process of displacement, condensation and secondary elaboration. Displacement takes place when we transform the person or object we are really concerned about to someone else. Condensation takes place when we combine different factors into one aspect of the manifest content.

Secondary elaboration occurs when the unconscious mind strings together wish-fulfilling images in a logical order of events, further obscuring the latent content. According to Freud this is why the manifest content of dreams can be in the form of believable events. On 24 July 1895, Freud had his own dream that was to form the basis of his theory. He had been worried about a patient, Irma, who was not doing as well in treatment as he had hoped. Freud in blamed himself for this, and was feeling guilty. Freud dreamed that he met Irma at a party and examined her.

He then saw a chemical formula for a drug that another doctor had given Irma flash before his eyes and realised that her condition was caused by a dirty syringe used by the other doctor. Freud was no longer guilty. Freud interpreted this dream as wish-fulfilment. He had wished that Irma’s poor condition was not his fault and the dream had fulfilled this wish by informing him that another doctor was at fault. Based on this dream, Freud went on to propose that a major function of dreams was the fulfilment of wishes. Another method used in psychoanalysis is free association.

Free Association or the Talking Cure is based on the psychodynamic model of abnormality. Psychotherapy places great significance on childhood experiences, such as the psychosexual stages, and on repressed impulses and unresolved conflicts in the unconscious. The aim of psychotherapy is to bring repressed material into conscious awareness – ‘to make the unconscious, conscious’. During therapy sessions the patient is encouraged to relax on a couch and talk about whatever comes into his mind. The therapist listens and offers no judgement about anything the patient says.

It is hoped the patient will relax his internal censor and released repressed material from the unconscious. The therapist then helps the patient interpret the material and gain insight into the origins of the conflict. During the therapy the patient may also transfer his unconscious feelings and emotions onto the therapist. Psychotherapists help the patient deal with their recovered memories that came from the unconscious. Patients go through a cathartic experience called abreaction. Someone who experiences this will be cured of the disorder.

In this paper I will be talking about the founder of the psychoanalytic theory, Sigmund Freud. Who came up with many ways to find out why we do the things we do and think the way we think. Sigmund Freud was an awesome mind that thought things and put it on paper that we might would think was too offending to others. Throughout the decades his work has been deciphered by many people who try to make sense of it, and in this paper I will try to let you know what understanding I got from the readings.

When it comes to comparing and contrasting the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, and Alfred Alder, I felt like Sigmund Freud had the most, wide range of theories and the broader range of thoughts throughout his readings. One thing that Alder touched on that puzzled me is the fact that we all some kind of way are coming into our personality as a child while suckling on our moms breast. Another thing that puzzled me about Alder is that our personality comes from a form of sexuality, like the comment he made about everyone having a crush on their mother at an early age and mainly boys but girls also.

From what I read though is that the female will stop that sexual connection with their mother and transfer it to their dad, and it was said it’s because they don’t have a penis. It seems to me that all of Alders research was more on how people think from sexuality experiences rather than any life experiences. On the other hand there is Jung who wrote that the visions and dreams he often experienced were not unimportant coincidences, but instead were valuable communications of information from the realm of the paranormal.

This I also found really puzzling because we all know that we have dreams but have never thought that the dreams or thoughts came from another realm. Jung’s ego is quite similar in scope and meaning to Freud’s. It is the aspect of personality that’s conscious, and it embodies the sense of self. (Jung believed that this personal identity, or ego, developed around age four. ) One of the central ways in which Adler’s views differed from those of Freud was the emphasis each placed on the origin of motivation.

REF… Throughout my reading about Jung I found that his theories made more sense than those of Freud, mainly because Freud’s theories were based on a person’s sexuality which I find hard to believe mainly because of the fact that his theories are based on sex. Whereas Jung’s theories made more sense to me as far as him quoting that our dreams are like an iceberg, with dreams being bigger than what they appear to be and our collective unconscious that we can’t control is our past elders.

When it comes to Alder I feel like his psychoanalytic theories makes a lot of sense also because he feels like everyone has their own unique motivations on why they make the decisions they make in life and also how that individual person perceives the life that they have been raised around. What is significant about Adler’s notion is that it involves comparisons and rivalries with other people. For Adler, social interest is a primary source of motivation. The internal drives emphasized by Freud are complemented by external pressures, especially those arising from relationships.

REF… When it comes to the stages of Freud’s theory, it’s very interesting on how he broke down the stages. The first one I want to talk to you about is the Oral stage in which he says that you are like a child that’s depending on their mother for milk and comfort and pleasure. Also he felt like that if you carry this Oral stage over into your adult life that you would develop habits like attachment, and also have pleasure from biting, chewing, sucking hard candy, eating or smoking cigarettes.

The next stage is the Anal stage in which he talked how as kids we learned to use the pot, and those of us who learned quick and was willing to use the bathroom would shake the Anal stage and the ones who would want to hold their feces would likely be stuck in the anal stage. Also he stated that these certain people would like to make messes and also making messes of other peoples lives. (Or they may be overly concerned with neatness, parsimony, order, and organization…REF) The next stage is the phallic stage in where he says a child starts touching their genitals and participates in masturbation.

This stage seemed odd to me because I can’t recall masturbating at the age of four. The next stage is the genital stage in which he states that if you make it through all the challenges of childhood with enough sexual energy still left then there will supposedly be a fairly well-adjusted life, dominated by the genital stage. When it comes to the defense mechanisms of Freud repression is one that I can relate to simply because as a child my father left the house and was gone for many birthdays which made me not trust men.

That plays on in my mind now that I have a two year old son of my own, that I would never leave his side and will always be there as long as God is willing. Another defense mechanism is denial and I can relate to that also because when my granddad passed away it was hard on me and I was in denial of not wanting to accept that he was gone and I’d never see him again. Another defense mechanism that I could relate to is sublimation in which I transform my dangerous urges into positive ones. One way that I do this is by helping out at the local boys club and helping my elders as much as possible.

In conclusion Freud, Jung, and Alder had great minds on them that needed to be wrote down with every thought. Because throughout my time on this earth I have never heard people talk so openly about why people do the things they do and think the way they think. As I went over the readings I could only think what type of life these people really lived. Also some of the points they made about certain things really made sense especially the oral stage. We need great minds like that in our world to make sense of things like why things happen the way they do.

In the twentieth century, Sigmund Freud, had been labeled as the father of psychoanalysis. Working with many great theorists in his lifetime, they helped him expand his thinking too create many theories of his own, one in particular, the psychoanalytic theory. Even though many theorists did not agree with his theory, because of his addiction to cocaine, many believe he was one of the greatest. Sigmund Freud was born in Moravia in May 6, 1856 into Jewish parents. In 1860 his family migrated to Vienna, where he resided for about eighty years.

He then left Vienna moving to London after the Nazis overran Austria. Since when he was young, Freud wanted to be a scientist. In 1873, Freud enters the medical school of University of Vienna, graduating eight years later. (Hall, 1970) In 1886 He married to Martha Bernays and opened his own practice. (Wollheim, 1971) After studying and working with Jean Charcot a French psychiatrist and Joseph Breuer a Viennese physician, Freud realized that Charcot’s hypnosis treatment was not impressive and Breuer’s conservative view on sexual conflict where the cause of hysteria left Freud working alone.Working alone helped Freud form the foundation of psychoanalytic theory. (Hall, 1970) Psychoanalytic theory is the belief that a dynamic struggle takes place within the human psych between unconscious forces.

That’s where the structure of personality takes place. The structure of personality is made up of three main mental entities, Id, Ego, and Superego. Id operates only in the unconscious mind containing basic animal drives as instinctual impulses, hunger, thirst, sex, and aggression.Id follows the pressure principle and demand for instant gratification. Ego represents reason and good sense. Id organizes the ways to handle the delay of gratification by coping with frustration by operating in the reality of principles, seeking to satisfy instinctual demands in way that are practical and socially acceptable. Ego attends to avoid social disapproval.

Superego is the interval moral guardian or conscience. Develops by internalizing the moral teachings of parents or other significant others.The ego has to make the compromise between the id and superego. (Quigley, 1998) In the end, balance and interactions of these three parts is determined by our behavior and our ability to meet the life challenges we face. To understand it better in a criminology way an example of the theory would be John is at the mall and sees the diamond on a ring shine right on him and his id thinks, “I’d like to go and snatch it right off the show case. The ego then says, “Wait there’s not enough people, you’re in a plain site, let’s wait for the room to get busy. ” The superego then says, “Wait, you can’t do that, you can pay for it.

” In 1880s Sigmund Freud started experimenting with cocaine. He believed that cocaine lifted his spirit when he was at a low period in his life. Freud stated that with brilliant success he was able to observe the effects cocaine took on him when he used small doses, regularly for depression and against indigestion. Cocaine) Because of this experimenting stage many has challenge Freud psychoanalytic theory. In practically, Darwin, who critisized Freud theory because it was generated by confusions arising Freud long standing use of cocaine. (Freud, 2010) Also, Breuer, a mentor and friend, disagree with Freud when it came to talking treatment for hysteria because sexual desires lay at the bottom of all these hysterical neuroses and like stated before Breuer was conservative towards the subject. (Boeree, 1997)In 1939, Sigmund Freud died of cancer to the mouth and jaw, after battling it for almost 20 years.

Some of Freud’s ideas are tied to his culture and era; other ideas are not easily testable. Some may even of Freud’s own personality and experiences. But Freud was a great observer of the human condition, and enough of what he said has meaning today that he will be a part of personality textbooks for years to come. Even when theorists come up with dramatically different ideas about how we work, they compare their ideas with Freud’s.

Psychodynamic Theory Review In the article “The Future of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy,” Cortina (2010) reviews past and current issues concerning psychodynamic theory in relation to therapy practices. He describes how and why a once widely accepted and common method of psychological treatment has since suffered a swift weakening in popularity and reliability. Cortina (2010) also speaks about the basic concepts that underlie the psychodynamic theory so that possible interpretations can be drawn as to why this theory has succumbed to such criticism over the decades.

Although, the psychodynamic theory does not have a good reputation, Cortina (2010) examines past and current research on how psychodynamic theory is making a comeback, and it’s now supposed effectiveness. The Deterioration According to Cortina (2010), one of the tell-tale signs that psychodynamic theory has taken a dive in the world of psychotherapy is because of the decline in related book sales. Not even a decade ago, the bestselling psychoanalytical books were sold by the tens of thousands.

Over the past few years, less than 500 have been taken off the shelves and found their way into the hands of appreciating scholars. A proposed reason for this is that Freud’s credibility has been lost. Although there was not adequate scientific evidence to back up his theories back in the day, a lot has changed in the past century. Unfortunately, Freud’s theory has become nothing more than a “postmodern-deconstructive philosophy” (Cortina, 2010, The Decline of Psychoanalysis, para. 4). Concepts of Psychoanalytical Theory

Shendler (2010), as referenced by Cortina (2010), list some basic concepts of the psychoanalytical theory. People act according to unconscious processes and impulses. When those processes become conflicted with one another, trouble ensues. People also respond to emotional processes. Recognizing and accepting conscious and unconscious emotions are essential to psychoanalytical theory. This theory focuses on defense mechanisms. People tend to behave in ways that are not in context with what is going on.

Psychoanalytical theory has a tendency to pay close attention to the development of the mind. How a person thinks and perceives can reveal a lot about what is going on in the mind. Social processes are also important especially how individuals relate to and communicate with one another. Lastly, psychoanalytical theory focuses on dreams and a person’s imagination. These are the doors to the unconscious. Research Cortina (2010) provides evidence from past and current research that favors psychoanalytical theory.

Science has come a long way in the past decade; therefore, scientists have a better understanding about what is really going on in the human mind. With the use of tools such as the MRI, they can make connections between thoughts, emotions, actions, and specific areas of the brain and other physiological processes. Researchers have also obtained a wealth of information from case studies. Although many are still skeptical about the reliability of psychoanalytical theory, evidence has shown many strengths and benefits of this theory. Conclusion

Regardless of the unpopularity of psychoanalytical theory, opinions and attitudes are starting to change. There is a considerable amount of evidence that supports the ideas behind and the benefits of this theory. Since only a small percentage of practitioners receive specialized training in psychoanalytical therapy, much has to be done to convince the public and academic sector that psychoanalytical theory is not a fairytale. Personal Perspective I believe that the psychoanalytical perspective to psychotherapy has many good qualities, as well as, some questionable qualities.

I agree with Cortina (2010) that this theory is making some great strides to prove itself worthy in the scientific field. I do not fully adhere to the notion that many of our actions are driven by unconscious motives because that tends to take accountability and choice away from the individual. I am fascinated by this theory only for the purpose of study, not in practice. Reference Cortina, M. (2010). The future of psychodynamic psychotherapy. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, 73(1), 43-56. doi:10. 1521/psyc. 2010. 73. 1. 43