Psychodynamic approach in psychology. Elements of the psychodynamic approach

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

The psychodynamic approach is one of the main psychological approaches to understanding a person's personality and directing therapeutic work with disorders in his emotional sphere. Its founder is the famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, who created the theory of psychoanalysis. Therefore, this approach is often called psychoanalytic.

Basic psychological approaches

In psychology, the human psyche is considered from different angles. Researchers take into account one or another of its facets, study and, on the basis of the data obtained, form various theoretical concepts. Some of them are very similar to each other in the basic postulates, so they are conventionally referred to the same group. So, today there are several main psychological approaches, which include the following:

• psychodynamic;
• behavioral;
• cognitive;
• humanistic;
• existential;
• transpersonal;
• integrative.

The psychodynamic approach proceeds from the position that the human psyche is not static, but is in constant dynamics, proceeding at the unconscious level. The behavioral approach is aimed at replacing ineffective behaviors with effective ones, and the cognitive approach is similarly aimed at changing beliefs.

The humanistic approach emphasizes the therapist's empathy and acceptance towards the client. The existential approach takes its roots in philosophy and raises questions about the meanings of human existence. The transpersonal approach focuses on a person's religious, mystical, peak experiences. In other words, it works with altered states of consciousness. The integrative approach involves the psychotherapist relying on several approaches at the same time.

Basic postulate of the psychodynamic approach

The term "psychodynamics" means the mobility of the human psyche: the development and extinction, the promotion or confrontation of internal impulses. The psychodynamic approach in psychology is based on the assumption that the human psyche has its own unconscious movements and interactions of various energies that are not reduced to physiological or social influences.

The basic postulate on which this approach is based is that the processes that are realized by a person in his psyche are the result of the independent dynamics of his psyche, and not a consequence of external circumstances, arguments of reason or volitionalefforts.

Psychoanalysis as the origin of the approach

The psychodynamic approach to personality was developed by the famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, creating his own theoretical concept - psychoanalysis. Therefore, this approach is often called psychoanalytic. The views of the scientist were revolutionary for that time. He proceeded from the psychodynamic understanding of mental phenomena. He sought not only to describe and classify phenomena, but to understand them as a struggle of spiritual forces.

Freud based the angle on unconscious motives that work in concert with each other or are at war with each other. He was the first to suggest that a person's personality and behavior are the result of an effort by the Ego to reconcile unconscious psychic conflicts with the demands of the real world.

The goal of Freud's psychoanalysis

According to Freud's views, helping the patient should be that he could better understand his unconscious conflicts underlying the problems that bother him. Psychoanalysis is a system that offers special psychological procedures to help achieve this understanding, for example:

• conducting a systematic study of the relationship between a person's life history and current problems;
• focusing on his thoughts and emotions during treatment;
• exploiting the relationship between patient and therapist for therapeutic purposes.

Personality theory in Freud's psychoanalysis

Integral elements of the psychodynamic approachare the conscious, the unconscious, the limiting factors. Freud drew an analogy between a person's personality and an iceberg. At the same time, he correlated consciousness with the visible tip of the iceberg. And the main mass that is located under water and invisible - with the unconscious. According to Freud, personality has three main components.

1. Id - the unconscious. Freud imagined it as a huge reservoir of unconscious energy, which he gave the name "libido". All the basic instincts, impulses, desires with which people are born belong to the id. He generalized them into two basic instincts: eros and thanatos. The first is the instinct of pleasure and sex, and the second is the instinct of death, capable of provoking destructiveness or aggression both towards oneself and towards others. The main principle of Eid is the pursuit of pleasure. He does not care about social norms, he does not care about the rights and feelings of others.
2. Ego is the mind. The ego is busy looking for possible ways to satisfy instincts while respecting social norms. The ego seeks to establish compromises between the unreasonable desires of the id and the rules of the real world. The ego principle is reality. The ego seeks to satisfy the needs of a person in a way that at the same time protects him from emotional and physical damage, possible due to awareness of the impulses emanating from the id. Or at least minimize it.
3. Superego - conscience, which is formed in the process of education and is the result of the assimilation of parental and social norms and values. These are "good things" internalized by a person in childhood.bad", "necessary - impossible". The superego strives to perform actions and deeds based on moral principles, the violation of which causes a feeling of guilt.

Id, Ego and Superego or instincts, reason and morality often do not get along with each other. As a result of their confrontation, intrapsychic or psychodynamic conflicts develop. A small number of conflicts or their effective resolution is associated with adaptive behavior and is considered the norm.

Methods used in psychoanalysis

Multiple, severe, unmanaged or poorly managed conflicts between the personality components of the Id, Ego and Superego lead to deviant personality traits or entail mental disorders.

One of the most important functions of the ego is the formation of defense mechanisms against feelings of anxiety and guilt. Psychological defense mechanisms are an unconscious tactic of the psyche that helps protect a person from emotions that are unpleasant for him. These include negation, repression, substitution, intellectualization, rationalization, projection, regression, reactive formation, sublimation. Freud considered neurotic anxiety as a signal of the threat that unconscious impulses can overcome protective barriers and reach consciousness.

Due to the action of protective mechanisms, it is difficult to study the area of the unconscious. Therefore, the main feature of the methods of psychoanalysis is the focus on overcoming protective barriers in order for the patient to achieve awareness of the conflict between his consciousness andunconscious.

For these purposes, Freud developed and used methods of interpreting free associations, dreams, analysis of projections, erroneous actions, for example, slips of the tongue, typos, transference, work with resistance. The main goal of psychological influence is to achieve a greater level of harmony between the Id, Ego and Superego.

Development of the psychoanalytic approach

In modern psychotherapy of emotional disorders, there are different types of personality theories, diagnostic methods and psychotechnics in the psychodynamic approach. Some movements are less focused on the id, the unconscious and the past than classical Freudianism.

They pay much more attention to the actual problems of a person and how to use the power of his Ego for their successful solution. In these therapies, clients are helped to recognize how their deep feelings of insecurity, anxiety, and inferiority lead to emotional disturbances and problems in relationships with others.

Objectives of the approach

All types of psychotherapy and any methods of psychodynamic approach have two main tasks:

1. Achieve insight from the patient, that is, awareness of an intrapsychic or psychodynamic conflict.
2. Assist him with conflict resolution, that is, help him see how the conflict affects current behavior and relationships with other people.

Representatives of the approach

Psychodynamic approach tomany eminent psychologists have used psychosocial work. First of all, this, of course, is Z. Freud himself. A daughter, A. Freud, followed in the footsteps of her father. K. Jung was his student and subsequently developed his own version of psychoanalysis. Also, representatives of this approach include such well-known psychologists as A. Adler, O. Rank, G. Sullivan, K. Horney, E. Fromm.

Psychotherapeutic directions of approach

Today, in practical psychology, the most popular areas such as transactional analysis, psychodrama and body-oriented psychotherapy work within the framework of the psychodynamic approach.

Transactional analysis leads a person to a rational analysis of his own and other people's behavior in order to understand the essence of interaction with other people and the internal programmed life style - script.

Psychodrama involves staging real problems by assigning roles to participants in group therapy. A person in the course of theatricalization of his habitual scenarios or patterns of behavior achieves understanding, catharsis. As a result of this, inner insight occurs, which helps to take a fresh look at the situation, comprehend it and get rid of limiting ineffective scenarios.

Body-oriented therapy is based on the interaction of mind and body. In order to relieve internal stress, provoking unconscious factors are identified and work is underway to release closed emotions, liberate the mind and body.

Benefits of Dynamic Psychotherapy

Psychodynamic psychotherapy is focused on insight. Therefore, the psychotherapist brings the client to the realization of intrapsychic conflicts, the struggle of internal forces, to the understanding of his unconscious. Interpretation is the most important procedure and working through is the longest part of psychotherapy. Processing involves the obligatory independent work of the client outside of psychotherapeutic sessions.

The psychodynamic model of social work finds its application in situations related to the development of individuality, rehabilitation and adaptation. This approach helps to develop self-esteem, allows the individual to make the necessary social changes in the system.

The psychoanalytic or psychodynamic approach is designed to help a person find ways to fulfill his instincts and desires in a socially acceptable way. Thus, the mind and the unconscious are reconciled, intrapersonal conflicts are eliminated, and emotional balance is restored.