Psychodynamic LO1 & LO2
Nicola Hamilton
10th November 2022
Before the invention of Psychodynamic theory any form of mania or hysteria was initially
treated in the community by family, friends, or the church, beyond that, they were
incarcerated in mental asylums with no effective treatment plans. With the invention of
psychoanalysis, mental health issues were categorised, explored clinically by physicians, and
patients were prescribed medication. The ‘father of Psychoanalytic theory’ Sigmund Freud
made the move from medication and the lunatic asylums to the therapy room after soldiers
returned from the First World War presenting with unknown hysteria type symptoms; at the
time it was known as ‘shellshock’ today it is recognised as ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’’.
(Rosenberg, 2019)
Psychodynamic theory has been developed from Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory (written
between the 1890s and the 1930s) it stated all human behaviour is shaped by experiences in
infancy and early childhood and that those experiences influence the unconscious mind.
(Lumen Learning and Traylor, n.d.) Freud delved into the unconscious mind, his assumptions
were that personality and its flaws develop during the first few years of life, and that
interactions from caregivers made a lasting impact on the child's mental and emotional
state believing that even a slip of the tongue was a determined factor.
Although there is a difference, psychodynamic and psychoanalytic are often confused,
Freud's theories contributed exponentially to the psychodynamic movement, however, his
theories are psychoanalytic, the term 'psychodynamic' refers to not only Freud's theories
but those of his followers Carl Jung (1912), Melanie Klein (1921), Alfred Adler (1927), Donald
Winnicott (1945), Erik Erikson (1950), and John Bowlby (1969) amongst others.
Psychodynamic theory breaks down the mind into components of preconscious,
subconscious, and conscious thoughts and refers to the inner unconscious psychological
processes and conflicts or ‘blind spots’ of a person's mind, it stresses the importance of the
past and how negative childhood experiences can hinder the growth of the psychosexual
and psychosocial stages of early development and continue to shape the personality of
adults years later. Analysis also discusses the significance of dream interpretation to gain
insight into the inner workings of the unconscious mind, it is said that the unconscious part
of the mind is in constant conflict with the conscious mind of the client which can create
areas of anxiety and in turn creates defence mechanisms to cope in crisis; it is the
assumption that once a person realises the root cause of the problem it will cease to be a
problem. (Corey, 2013a)
Psychodynamic theorists understand that there is an internal active self, something that is
more than the mind and body alone, that there are forces within the self that have basic
drives that actively seek satisfaction and expression, the sense of being is more than just the
person, it is also the internal relationships and conflicts within the person. According to
Freud the psyche is split into 3 parts, the primal needs of the Id, the authoritarian Super Ego
and the balanced Ego, Jung had similar hypothesis and mentions Persona, Shadow, Anima,
and Animus giving theorists an idea that there is more than ‘one' self, Winnicott wrote of
the True Self and False Self, Adler discussed theories of ‘Private Logic’ and
Inferiority/Superiority, whereas Klein developed the idea of ‘Object Relations’, and Bowlby
pioneered Attachment Theory. (Jacobs, 1988)
By using free association and the interpretation of dreams clients are encouraged to discuss
the thoughts, emotions, and attitudes they are feeling towards significant people in the
Psychodynamic LO1 & LO2
Nicola Hamilton
10th November 2022
past, by bringing the subconscious into conscious thought it provides insight however, these
feelings can be unconsciously transferred by the client and projected toward the counsellor,
should this happen exploration and acknowledgement of these feelings and where they
should sit to would an appropriate course of action. Progress is made when the client gains
control over the situation at hand. (Hough, 2010a)
Client insight needs to be carefully managed in a step-by-step process, the client needs to
possess the mental strength and stability to understand and realise what has happened to
them in the past, the view is that our unconscious mind holds on to painful feelings that the
conscious mind cannot process successfully, clarifying and understanding of the root cause
of past life traumas can be both a relief and an exceptionally distressing, and overwhelming
time for the client while they make sense of their revelations.
Psychodynamic counsellors spend many years training and studying to become therapeutic
counsellors and are seen as the ‘expert’ in the relationship, the therapy sessions are highly
analytical in style and immensely deterministic in nature; by bringing forward unconscious
processes into conscious thought, it surmises that our behaviours are entirely caused by
subconscious factors we have no control over. Drawing from years of clinical practice,
dreams and past life events are discussed, the counselling process becomes a long-term
helping relationship, it may see a strategy put in place over a considerable number of years
so the client can explore past experiences and gain strength and understanding to resolve
inner conflicts and unlock healthier coping mechanisms with newfound self-worth.
Freuds' understanding of psychoanalysis and the mind is the basis of virtually all modern
psychological theories, it is founded on the understanding that over or under stimulation of
a child during the psychosexual stages of growth (oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital) in
infancy and early childhood caused by major conflicts can cause a child to acquire
considerable defects later in adult life.
It discusses the psyche being 3 separate ego states (ego, superego, and id) and talks of
human nature, the basic drives and internal conflict we have, it further breaks down human
consciousness into 3 overlapping levels of awareness; pre-conscious, conscious and
unconscious, and discusses how uncontrollable situations in the past have caused the
current crisis within the patient, that most of the traumatic events are stored in the
unconscious mind outside of awareness however they continue to influence current
behaviours. (Walinga, 2014)
Freud worked alongside other theorists during this period however many split away from his
assumptions and developed their own perspectives, Carl Jung (1875-1961) was one of the
first to expand on Freuds’ theories (circa 1913) focusing less on infantile and sexual
development and more on the integration of the various parts of the personality, adapting
Freud’s ego states into Ego, Personal Unconscious and Collective Unconscious and treating
the person as a whole rather than separate entities, Jung became the pioneer of Analytical
Psychology. (Hough, 2010b)
Jung took a more positive and altruistic approach to humanity believing everyone was
inherently good, striving for self-improvement; he described the Collective Unconscious as
having multiple ‘Archetypes’, these archetypes (Child, Hero, Persona, Shadow) would be
handed down as learned behaviours or ‘traditional values’ fostered from caregivers during
Psychodynamic LO1 & LO2
Nicola Hamilton
10th November 2022
childhood and positively or negatively shape how the person experiences life. (Corey,
2013b)
Jung considered both the light and dark side of humanity, developing theories of the
Principle of Opposites, Principle of Equivalence and Principle of Entropy, it states that there
is good and bad in everyone, the shadow side of the self must also be acknowledged and
live in acceptance and balances otherwise the continual repression of thoughts and feeling
can create complex psychological issues and impede personal growth and the ability to
move towards individualisation. Jung studies on introversion/extroversion and the functions
of thinking, feeling, sensing, and intuiting were the inspiration behind the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator that is used today to categorise the personality into 16 types. (Boeree, 1997)
Alfred Adler was another colleague of Freud, and President of the Vienna Psychoanalytic
Society, they parted company in 1912 when their ideologies began to differ; Adler went on
to found the Society of Individual Psychology and unlike Freud he believed that although the
unconscious mind was important, it was conscious thought and social connectedness that
held the key to our motivation and goals along with treating the individuals a whole instead
of in parts. (Cherry, 2019)
He proclaimed that birth order was significant and attributed certain characteristics with a
specific order of birth, stating that everyone is born with a feeling of inferiority, how they
react to those feelings and interact with internal ‘private logic’ and external stimuli could be
either positive and see them striving for perfection, superiority, and self-actualisation, or
negatively where people develop difficulties an inferiority complex forms from hereditary
norms and social situations.
Adlerian theory states that people get into difficulties when they find themselves
disconnected from society, they overcompensate feelings of inferiority and use private logic
to justify their behaviours, and to try and preserve self-esteem they may overtly act superior
but in fact feel inferior due to unbalanced feelings of inferiority losing motivation and sight
of goals. (McGrath, n.d.)
Theorist and developmental psychologist, Erik Erikson, originated in the field of
Psychodynamics and worked alongside Freud until developing his own Psychosocial Theory
by de-emphasising the sex aspect of Freud’s Psychosexual Stages and expanding on
personality development and the impact of excessive positive ‘maladaptive’ and negative
‘malignant’ social interactions to create 8 psychosocial stages that span the entire life cycle
of a person.
At each stage of development there is an inner challenge or ‘crisis’ starting from birth,
successfully completing each stage ensures healthy psychological development and a
positive ‘virtue’ being completed enabling the person to move to the next stage, failing to
complete a stage successfully can result in an inability to effectively move on to the next
stage of growth therefore an unhealthy personality type would develop along with a skewed
sense of self, this is where the term ‘identity crisis’ originates. (Mcleod, 2018)
Psychosocial theories focus on the archetypal changes in ego development and the
conscious sense of self, Erikson maintained that there was a particular order in which
personality develops, each stage of growth builds from the previous stage, this is known as
the ‘epigenetic principle’. (Mcleod, 2018)
Psychodynamic LO1 & LO2
Nicola Hamilton
10th November 2022
Object Relations Theory grew from Psychodynamic theory, Melanie Klein and Donald
Winnicott were leaders in the field, they believed that mental disorders in adulthood were
directly related to the caregiver/infant relationship, both highlighted the significance of
object attachment in early infancy and the beginning of emotional and personality
development.
Both theorists used play as a form of therapy, they used toys and drawings to analyse
children the way Freud would analyse dreams in an adult, Klein was a controversial thinker
and believed that the primitive mental states of an infant connected the ‘object’ to the
mothers’ breast, which was either good or bad, depending on if the child was being fed or
starved, a term she called a ‘paranoid-schizoid position’. (Melanie Klein Trust, 2022).
Winnicott who trained under Klein, believed children and infants attached emotional
significance to objects through play with the purpose of coping with the stresses and
anxieties of independence, he maintained that a balanced ‘holding environment’ was crucial
for the child to feel emotionally secure and supported, the idea of the ‘good enough
mother’ was that she adapted herself to the infants needs until they were able to become
more autonomous. (Nursinganswers.net, 2018)
Interactions during this time contribute to the infants' sense of self, the ‘true self’ will
manifest if the child is nurtured and given the freedom to play and grow without constraint;
if a child has been subjected to malignant introjected values from caregivers or harmful
social /living situations, the child will mould themselves to fit into the situation to appease
the adults creating a ‘false self’ that can cause emotional imbalance and mental disorders
later in life.
Similarly, Attachment Theory assigns a ‘secure base’ as the safe place of protection between
a caregiver and an anxious child, John Bowlby was heavily influenced by psychodynamic
theorists Freud and Klein, studied separation anxiety in infants and young children noting
that children have an intrinsic attachment behavioural system and a need for attachment
from birth.
He goes on further to explain that infants when separated from caregivers will react in are 4
distinct attachment styles when retuned from an unfamiliar situation.
Secure infants are confident although upset upon removal however very quickly comforted
when returned, ambivalence appears when a child is unable to create a secure based due to
disruptions in care, a disorganised attachment style denotes a child will attempt remain
close and create a secure bond with the care giver despite contradictory care conditions,
detachment or active avoidance of caregivers when returned would signify deprivation of
care or the requirement to ‘keep the peace’. (Ackerman, 2018)
Bowlby concluded that these interactions and bonds in early life was the prototype for all
future interpersonal relationships and that separation or deprivation in infancy and early
childhood caused permanent emotional damage in adulthood.
Psychodynamic LO1 & LO2
Nicola Hamilton
10th November 2022
Ackerman, C. (2018). What Is Attachment Theory? Bowlby’s 4 Stages Explained. [online]
Available at: https://positivepsychology.com/attachment-theory/#definition-attachmenttheory [Accessed 1 Nov. 2022].
Boeree, C.G. (1997). Carl Jung. [online] Available at:
https://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html#:~:text=The%20second%20principle%20is%20
the [Accessed 9 Nov. 2022].
Cherry, K. (2019). What Did Alfred Adler Do for Psychology? [online] Available at:
https://www.verywellmind.com/alfred-adler-2795502 [Accessed 9 Nov. 2022].
Corey, G. (2013). Student manual for Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy.
9th ed. Belmont, Ca: Brooks/Cole.
Hough, M. (2010). Counselling Skills and Theory 3rd Edition. [online] Hodder Education.
Available at: https://edoc.pub/counselling-skills-and-theoryhough-pdf-free.html.
Jacobs, M. (1988). Psychodynamic Counselling in Action. 2nd ed. London: Sage Publications
Ltd.
Lumen Learning and Traylor, J. (n.d.). Psychodynamic Theory | Lifespan Development.
[online] Available at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmlifespandevelopment/chapter/freuds-psychodynamictheory/#:~:text=check%20back%20later.-.
McGrath, M. (n.d.). Chapter 4, Part 2: Adler’s Individual Psychology. [online]
open.baypath.edu. Available at: https://open.baypath.edu/psy321book/chapter/c4p2/
[Accessed 10 Nov. 2022].
Mcleod, S. (2018). Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development. [online] Available at:
https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html.
Melanie Klein Trust (2022). Paranoid-schizoid position – Melanie Klein Trust. [online]
Available at: https://melanie-klein-trust.org.uk/theory/paranoid-schizoid-position/
[Accessed 8 Nov. 2022].
NursingAnswers.net (2018). Object Relations Theories: Klein and Winnicott. [online]
Available at: https://nursinganswers.net/essays/object-relationsories.php [Accessed 10 Nov.
2022].
Rosenberg, J. (2019). The Life of Sigmund Freud, the Father of Psychoanalysis. [online]
Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/sigmund-freud-1779806 [Accessed 9 Nov. 2022].
Walinga, J. (2014). 2.2 Psychodynamic Psychology. [online] Available at:
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontopsychology/chapter/2-2-psychodynamic-andbehavioural-psychology/#:~:text=and%20external%20stimuli.-.
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Psychodynamic LO1 & LO2
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Nicola Hamilton
10th November 2022