Psychodynamics

Last updated April 30, 2024

Psychodynamics, also known as psychodynamic psychology, in its broadest sense, is an approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience. It is especially interested in the dynamic relations between conscious motivation and unconscious motivation.^[1]

The term psychodynamics is also used to refer specifically to the psychoanalytical approach developed by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and his followers. Freud was inspired by the theory of thermodynamics and used the term psychodynamics to describe the processes of the mind as flows of psychological energy (libido or psi) in an organically complex brain.^[2]

There are four major schools of thought regarding psychological treatment: psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, biological, and humanistic treatment. In the treatment of psychological distress, psychodynamic psychotherapy tends to be a less intensive (once- or twice-weekly) modality than the classical Freudian psychoanalysis treatment (of 3–5 sessions per week). Psychodynamic therapies depend upon a theory of inner conflict, wherein repressed behaviours and emotions surface into the patient's consciousness; generally, one's conflict is unconscious.^[3]

Overview

In general, psychodynamics is the study of the interrelationship of various parts of the mind, personality, or psyche as they relate to mental, emotional, or motivational forces especially at the unconscious level.^[4]^[5]^[6] The mental forces involved in psychodynamics are often divided into two parts:^[7] (a) the interaction of the emotional and motivational forces that affect behavior and mental states, especially on a subconscious level; (b) inner forces affecting behavior: the study of the emotional and motivational forces that affect behavior and states of mind.

Freud proposed that psychological energy was constant (hence, emotional changes consisted only in displacements) and that it tended to rest (point attractor) through discharge (catharsis).^[8]

In mate selection psychology, psychodynamics is defined as the study of the forces, motives, and energy generated by the deepest of human needs.^[9]

In general, psychodynamics studies the transformations and exchanges of "psychic energy" within the personality.^[5] A focus in psychodynamics is the connection between the energetics of emotional states in the Id, ego and super-ego as they relate to early childhood developments and processes. At the heart of psychological processes, according to Freud, is the ego, which he envisions as battling with three forces: the id, the super-ego, and the outside world.^[4] The id is the unconscious reservoir of libido, the psychic energy that fuels instincts and psychic processes. The ego serves as the general manager of personality, making decisions regarding the pleasures that will be pursued at the id's demand, the person's safety requirements, and the moral dictates of the superego that will be followed. The superego refers to the repository of an individual's moral values, divided into the conscience – the internalization of a society's rules and regulations – and the ego-ideal – the internalization of one's goals.^[10] Hence, the basic psychodynamic model focuses on the dynamic interactions between the id, ego, and superego.^[11] Psychodynamics, subsequently, attempts to explain or interpret behaviour or mental states in terms of innate emotional forces or processes.

History

Freud used the term psychodynamics to describe the processes of the mind as flows of psychological energy (libido) in an organically complex brain.^[2] The idea for this came from his first year adviser, Ernst von Brücke at the University of Vienna, who held the view that all living organisms, including humans, are basically energy-systems to which the principle of the conservation of energy applies.^[12] This principle states that "the total amount of energy in any given physical system is always constant, that energy quanta can be changed but not annihilated, and that consequently when energy is moved from one part of the system, it must reappear in another part."^[12] This principle is at the very root of Freud's ideas, whereby libido, which is primarily seen as sexual energy, is transformed into other behaviours. However, it is now clear that the term energy in physics means something quite different from the term energy in relation to mental functioning.

Psychodynamics was initially further developed by Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and Melanie Klein.^[5]^[6] By the mid-1940s and into the 1950s, the general application of the "psychodynamic theory" had been well established.^{[ citation needed ]}

In his 1988 book Introduction to Psychodynamics – a New Synthesis, psychiatrist Mardi J. Horowitz states that his own interest and fascination with psychodynamics began during the 1950s, when he heard Ralph Greenson, a popular local psychoanalyst who spoke to the public on topics such as "People who Hate", speak on the radio at UCLA. In his radio discussion, according to Horowitz, he "vividly described neurotic behavior and unconscious mental processes and linked psychodynamics theory directly to everyday life."^[13]

In the 1950s, American psychiatrist Eric Berne built on Freud's psychodynamic model, particularly that of the "ego states", to develop a psychology of human interactions called transactional analysis ^[14] which, according to physician James R. Allen, is a "cognitive-behavioral approach to treatment and that it is a very effective way of dealing with internal models of self and others as well as other psychodynamic issues.".^[14]

Around the 1970s, a growing number of researchers began departing from the psychodynamics model and Freudian subconscious. Many felt that the evidence was over-reliant on imaginative discourse in therapy, and on patient reports of their state-of-mind. These subjective experiences are inaccessible to others.^[15] Philosopher of science Karl Popper argued that much of Freudianism was untestable and therefore not scientific.^[16] In 1975 literary critic Frederick Crews began a decades-long campaign against the scientific credibility of Freudianism.^[17] This culminated in Freud: The Making of an Illusion which aggregated years of criticism from many quarters.^[18] Medical schools and psychology departments no longer offer much training in psychodynamics, according to a 2007 survey. An Emory University psychology professor explained, “I don’t think psychoanalysis is going to survive unless there is more of an appreciation for empirical rigor and testing.”^[19]

Freudian analysis

According to American psychologist Calvin S. Hall, from his 1954 Primer in Freudian Psychology:

Freud greatly admired Brücke and quickly became indoctrinated by this new dynamic physiology. Thanks to Freud's singular genius, he was to discover some twenty years later that the laws of dynamics could be applied to man's personality as well as to his body. When he made his discovery Freud proceeded to create a dynamic psychology. A dynamic psychology is one that studies the transformations and exchanges of energy within the personality. This was Freud’s greatest achievement, and one of the greatest achievements in modern science, It is certainly a crucial event in the history of psychology.

At the heart of psychological processes, according to Freud, is the ego, which he sees battling with three forces: the id, the super-ego, and the outside world.^[4] Hence, the basic psychodynamic model focuses on the dynamic interactions between the id, ego, and superego.^[11] Psychodynamics, subsequently, attempts to explain or interpret behavior or mental states in terms of innate emotional forces or processes. In his writings about the "engines of human behavior", Freud used the German word Trieb, a word that can be translated into English as either instinct or drive.^[20]

In the 1930s, Freud's daughter Anna Freud began to apply Freud's psychodynamic theories of the "ego" to the study of parent-child attachment and especially deprivation and in doing so developed ego psychology.

Jungian analysis

At the turn of the 20th century, during these decisive years, a young Swiss psychiatrist named Carl Jung had been following Freud's writings and had sent him copies of his articles and his first book, the 1907 Psychology of Dementia Praecox, in which he upheld the Freudian psychodynamic viewpoint, although with some reservations. That year, Freud invited Jung to visit him in Vienna. The two men, it is said, were greatly attracted to each other, and they talked continuously for thirteen hours. This led to a professional relationship in which they corresponded on a weekly basis, for a period of six years.^[21]

Carl Jung's contributions in psychodynamic psychology include:

The psyche tends toward wholeness.
The self is composed of the ego, the personal unconscious, the collective unconscious.^[22] The collective unconscious contains the archetypes which manifest in ways particular to each individual.
Archetypes are composed of dynamic tensions and arise spontaneously in the individual and collective psyche. Archetypes are autonomous energies common to the human species. They give the psyche its dynamic properties and help organize it. Their effects can be seen in many forms and across cultures.
The Transcendent Function: The emergence of the third resolves the split between dynamic polar tensions within the archetypal structure.
The recognition of the spiritual dimension of the human psyche.
The role of images which spontaneously arise in the human psyche (images include the interconnection between affect, images, and instinct) to communicate the dynamic processes taking place in the personal and collective unconscious, images which can be used to help the ego move in the direction of psychic wholeness.
Recognition of the multiplicity of psyche and psychic life, that there are several organizing principles within the psyche, and that they are at times in conflict.

Related Research Articles

Psychoanalysis is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques that deal in part with the unconscious mind, and which together form a method of treatment for mental disorders. The discipline was established in the early 1890s by Sigmund Freud, whose work stemmed partly from the clinical work of Josef Breuer and others. Freud developed and refined the theory and practice of psychoanalysis until his death in 1939. In an encyclopedic article, he identified the cornerstones of psychoanalysis as "the assumption that there are unconscious mental processes, the recognition of the theory of repression and resistance, the appreciation of the importance of sexuality and of the Oedipus complex." Freud's colleagues Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung developed offshoots of psychoanalysis which they called individual psychology (Adler) and analytical psychology (Jung), although Freud himself wrote a number of criticisms of them and emphatically denied that they were forms of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was later developed in different directions by neo-Freudian thinkers, such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, and Harry Stack Sullivan.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in the psyche, through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst, and the distinctive theory of mind and human agency derived from it.

In psychoanalysis and other psychological theories, the unconscious mind is the part of the psyche that is not available to introspection. Although these processes exist beneath the surface of conscious awareness, they are thought to exert an effect on conscious thought processes and behavior. Empirical evidence suggests that unconscious phenomena include repressed feelings and desires, memories, automatic skills, subliminal perceptions, and automatic reactions. The term was coined by the 18th-century German Romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

In psychoanalytic theory, the id, ego and superego are three distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus, defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche. The three agents are theoretical constructs that Freud employed to describe the basic structure of mental life as it was encountered in psychoanalytic practice. Freud himself used the German terms das Es, Ich, and Über-Ich, which literally translate as "the it", "I", and "over-I". The Latin terms id, ego and superego were chosen by his original translators and have remained in use.

Transactional analysis is a psychoanalytic theory and method of therapy wherein social interactions are analyzed to determine the ego state of the communicator as a basis for understanding behavior. In transactional analysis, the communicator is taught to alter the ego state as a way to solve emotional problems. The method deviates from Freudian psychoanalysis, which focuses on increasing awareness of the contents of subconsciously held ideas. Eric Berne developed the concept and paradigm of transactional analysis in the late 1950s.

Psychoanalytic theory is the theory of personality organization and the dynamics of personality development relating to the practice of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology. First laid out by Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century, psychoanalytic theory has undergone many refinements since his work. The psychoanalytic theory came to full prominence in the last third of the twentieth century as part of the flow of critical discourse regarding psychological treatments after the 1960s, long after Freud's death in 1939. Freud had ceased his analysis of the brain and his physiological studies and shifted his focus to the study of the psyche, and on treatment using free association and the phenomena of transference. His study emphasized the recognition of childhood events that could influence the mental functioning of adults. His examination of the genetic and then the developmental aspects gave the psychoanalytic theory its characteristics. Starting with his publication of The Interpretation of Dreams in 1899, his theories began to gain prominence.

Analytical psychology is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" of the psyche. It was designed to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories as their seven-year collaboration on psychoanalysis was drawing to an end between 1912 and 1913. The evolution of his science is contained in his monumental opus, the Collected Works, written over sixty years of his lifetime.

In psychology, sublimation is a mature type of defense mechanism, in which socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior, possibly resulting in a long-term conversion of the initial impulse.

A complex is a structure in the unconscious that is objectified as an underlying theme—like a power or a status—by grouping clusters of emotions, memories, perceptions and wishes in response to a threat to the stability of the self. In psychoanalysis, it is antithetical to drives.

In psychoanalysis, psychosexual development is a central element of the sexual drive theory. According to Freud, personality develops through a series of childhood stages in which pleasure seeking energies from the child become focused on certain erogenous areas. An erogenous zone is characterized as an area of the body that is particularly sensitive to stimulation. The five psychosexual stages are the oral, the anal, the phallic, the latent, and the genital. The erogenous zone associated with each stage serves as a source of pleasure. Being unsatisfied at any particular stage can result in fixation. On the other hand, being satisfied can result in a healthy personality. Sigmund Freud proposed that if the child experienced frustration at any of the psychosexual developmental stages, they would experience anxiety that would persist into adulthood as a neurosis, a functional mental disorder.

Transference is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which repetitions of old feelings, attitudes, desires, or fantasies that someone displaces are subconsciously projected onto a here-and-now person. Traditionally, it had solely concerned feelings from a primary relationship during childhood.

Hidden personality is the part of the personality that is determined by unconscious processes.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are two categories of psychological therapies. Their main purpose is revealing the unconscious content of a client's psyche in an effort to alleviate psychic tension, which is inner conflict within the mind that was created in a situation of extreme stress or emotional hardship, often in the state of distress. The terms "psychoanalytic psychotherapy" and "psychodynamic psychotherapy" are often used interchangeably, but a distinction can be made in practice: though psychodynamic psychotherapy largely relies on psychoanalytical theory, it employs substantially shorter treatment periods than traditional psychoanalytical therapies. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is evidence-based; the effectiveness of psychoanalysis and its relationship to facts is disputed.

Depth psychology refers to the practice and research of the science of the unconscious, covering both psychoanalysis and psychology. It is also defined as the psychological theory that explores the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious, as well as the patterns and dynamics of motivation and the mind. The theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, and Alfred Adler are all considered its foundations.

Ego psychology is a school of psychoanalysis rooted in Sigmund Freud's structural id-ego-superego model of the mind.

<i>The Ego and the Id</i> Book by Sigmund Freud

The Ego and the Id is a prominent paper by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. It is an analytical study of the human psyche outlining his theories of the psychodynamics of the id, ego and super-ego, which is of fundamental importance in the development of psychoanalysis. The study was conducted over years of research and was first published in the third week of April 1923.

Energy is a concept in some psychological theories or models of a postulated unconscious mental functioning on a level between biology and consciousness.

Resistance, in psychoanalysis, refers to the client's defence mechanisms that emerge from unconscious content coming to fruition through process. Resistance is the repression of unconscious drives from integration into conscious awareness.

In psychoanalytic theory, the term psychic apparatus refers to the mental structures and mechanisms of the psyche. In Freud's 'topographical' model of the psyche, it refers to three systems – the Unconscious, the Pre-conscious, and the Conscious. In his later 'structural model', Freud described the psychic apparatus in terms of the id, ego and super-ego.

Sigmund Freud is considered to be the founder of the psychodynamic approach to psychology, which looks to unconscious drives to explain human behavior. Freud believed that the mind is responsible for both conscious and unconscious decisions that it makes on the basis of psychological drives. The id, ego, and super-ego are three aspects of the mind Freud believed to comprise a person's personality. Freud believed people are "simply actors in the drama of [their] own minds, pushed by desire, pulled by coincidence. Underneath the surface, our personalities represent the power struggle going on deep within us".

References

↑ What is psychodynamics? — WebMD rehashing Stedman's Medical Dictionary 28th Edition (2006), Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
1 2 Bowlby, John (1999). Attachment and Loss: Vol I, 2nd Ed. Basic Books. pp. 13–23. ISBN 0-465-00543-8.
↑ Adapted from Corsini and Wedding 2008; Corsini, R. J., & Wedding, D. (2008) Current Psychotherapies, 8th Edition. Belmont, CA.: Thomson Brooks/Cole. (pp. 15-17).
1 2 3 Freud, Sigmund (1923). The Ego and the Id. W.W. Norton & Company. pp. (4–5). ISBN 0-393-00142-3.
1 2 3 Hall, Calvin, S. (1954). A Primer in Freudian Psychology. Meridian Book. ISBN 0-452-01183-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
1 2 Psychodynamics (1874) - (1) the psychology of mental or emotional forces or processes developing especially in early childhood and their effects on behavior and mental states; (2) explanation ! or interpretation, as of behavior or mental states, in terms of mental or emotional forces or processes; (3) motivational forces acting especially at the unconscious level. Source: Merriam-Webster, 2000, CD-ROM, version 2.5
↑ Psychodynamics Archived 2007-11-16 at the Wayback Machine – Microsoft Encarta
↑ Robertson, Robin; Combs, Allan (1995). Chaos theory in Psychology and Life Sciences. LEA, Inc. p. (83). ISBN 0-8058-1737-9.
↑ Klimek, David (1979). Beneath Mate Selection and Marriage - the Unconscious Motives in Human Pairing. Van Nostrand Reinhold. p. 3. ISBN 0-442-23074-5.
↑ Carlson, Neil, R.; et al. (2010). Psychology: The Science of Behaviour. United States of America: Pearson Education. pp. 453–454. ISBN 978-0-205-64524-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
1 2 Ahles, Scott, R. (2004). Our Inner World: A Guide to Psychodynamics and Psychotherapy. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. (1–2). ISBN 0-8018-7836-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
1 2 Stephen P. Thornton. "Sigmund Freud (1856—1939)". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 2013-05-26.
↑ Horowitz, Mardi, J. (1988). Introduction to Psychodynamics - a New Synthesis. Basic Books. p. 3. ISBN 0-465-03561-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
1 2 Berne, Eric (1964). Games People Play – The Basic Hand Book of Transactional Analysis. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-41003-3.
↑ Grünbaum, Adolf (1984). The Foundations of Psychoanalysis: A Philosophical Critique . University of California. ISBN 978-0520050174.
↑ Popper, Karl R. (1962). CONJECTURES AND REFUTATIONS The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. New York: Basic Books. p. 38.
↑ Crews, Frederick C. (1975). Out of My System: Psychoanalysis, Ideology, and Critical Method . Oxford. ISBN 0-19-501947-4.
↑ Crews, Frederick C. (2017). Freud: The Making of an Illusion. Metropolitan. ISBN 9781627797177.
↑ Cohen, Patricia (November 25, 2007). "Freud Is Widely Taught at Universities, Except in the Psychology Department". New York Times. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
↑ Walsh, Anthony (1991). The Science of Love - Understanding Love and its Effects on Mind and Body. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. p. 58. ISBN 0-87975-648-9.
↑ Hall, Calvin S.; Nordby, Vernon J. (1999). A Primer of Jungian Psychology. New York: Meridian. ISBN 0-452-01186-8.
↑ niu.edu Archived 2007-06-26 at the Wayback Machine Outline of the Major Points in Carl Jung's Contributions to Psychology