1 Amani Counselling Centre and Training Institution. Diploma in Counselling Psychology. ADC 407: Introduction to Psychology. According to the Psychodynamic view how do individuals acquire disturbance? Ashley W. Kaburu. Dennis Ogaro. 05/02/2023. 2 Personality theory is a set of related assumptions that allow scientists to use logical reductive reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses. Among the many theories of personality one of the main ones is the psychodynamic theory. The psychodynamic theory according to (Wikipedia contributors, 2023) is referred as the interrelationship of various parts of the mind, personality, or psyche as they relate to the mental, emotional, or motivational forces mainly at the unconscious level. Among the contents of the psychodynamic theory, there are several ways in which one can acquire psychological disturbances and below are some. (The Structure and Levels of the Mind According to Freud, 2020) noted that Sigmund Freud referred the mental life of a human as an ice berg whereby the conscious mind is at the tip of the iceberg followed by the preconscious which is slightly submerged and lastly the unconscious which is unseen and the largest part. Psychoanalysis works towards moving a person’s thoughts and experiences from the unconscious to the conscious mind. One of the ways one is said to be disturbed psychologically is if the unconscious is larger than the conscious. The unconscious is filled with repressed childhood memories, unpleasant experiences and urges which can affect our feeling, expressions and actions on a long term basis unless they are brought to the conscious mind and fully worked on. Secondly an individual is unable to resolve psyche conflicts between the Id, Ego and Super ego personalities. As it is known the Id works on a pleasure principle. Although these urges need to be under control, if not satisfied can sometimes lead to a state of anxiety or tension on an individual (Id, Ego, and Superego Are Part of a Structural Model of Personality, 2022). The ego and super ego’s function is to control and regulate id impulses and when one is disturbed they will not be able to control their urges to please the id. One will be making immature, irrational and illogical decisions as opposed to when the ego and super ego are in control. Thirdly is when a person depends frequently on ego defense mechanisms to cope with their stress and anxiety. Defense mechanisms according to (Common Defense Mechanisms People Use to Cope with Anxiety, 2022) are unconscious psychological responses that protect people from feeling of anxiety, threats to self-esteem, and things that they don’t want to think about or deal with. Although the defense mechanisms are used to resolve conflict between id and super ego, when overused it can mean they are trying to avoid facing reality. For example in a work 3 setting, when an employee is frustrated by their employer’s actions they take out their frustration on a lesser target. This may affect the relation of the two parties. Lastly is in a case where someone shows signs of fixation on certain psychosexual stages of development. Fixation according to (How Do Psychological Fixations Form?, 2022) is referred to as the persistent focus of the id’s pleasure-seeking energies at an early stage of psychosexual development. Throughout the psychosexual stages of development, when a person is either over or under stimulated, they become fixated at that stage. Fixations occur when a conflict in the psychosexual stage remains unsolved. This leaves one focused on that stage and is unable to move to the next stages. An example of this is when a fixated at the oral stage of development, either over or under stimulated, they will become talkative or dependent on alcohol and sarcastic or argumentative if under stimulated. In conclusion there are ways in which one shows psychological disturbance according to the psychoanalytic theory. There are also therapeutic techniques that can be used on an individual to make them better. Some of these include use of hypnosis whereby one is put in a sleep-like state but in reality are in a state of hyper awareness. There is also use of interpretation through transference and counter transference. Transference is where the client projects their feelings from a significant other to their therapist while counter transference is where the therapist projects their emotions and feelings to their client. There is also dream analysis. Dreams are believed to be manifestations of the unconscious that are surfacing to the conscious mind. When a person analyses their dreams it’s a way of finding out the needs and desires of the unconscious mind. 4 Reference List. Common Defense Mechanisms People Use to Cope with Anxiety. (2022, November 1). Verywell Mind. Accessed February 1, 2023. < https://www.verywellmind.com/defensemechanisms-2795960> How Do Psychological Fixations Form? (2022, November 14). Verywell Mind. Accessed February 1, 2023. < https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-fixation-2795188> Id, Ego, and Superego Are Part of a Structural Model of Personality. (2022, September 13). Verywell Mind. Accessed February 1, 2023. < https://www.verywellmind.com/the-idego-and-superego-2795951> The Structure and Levels of the Mind According to Freud. (2020, December 10). Verywell Mind. Accessed February 1, 2023. https://www.verywellmind.com/the-conscious-andunconscious-mind-2795946 Wikipedia contributors. (2023, January 18). Psychodynamics. Wikipedia. Accessed February 1,2023.< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychodynamics> 5
