Application of Freud’s Psychodynamic approach to Care Settings
Provision for needs to be met in
early years settings
Provision for needs to be met in
Day care settings
Personal support, supervision, advice,
chiropody, aids and adaptations, meals.
Provision for needs to be met in
Residential and nursing homes
Freud
emphasised
that
childhood
experiences contribute towards the
individual’s adult personality. Therefore it
is important that the child is protected
from any form of distress so that they
can develop a healthy state of mind e.g.
there must be policies on bullying.
Carers should take into consideration any
form of distress shown by the individual
e.g. a service user may have a tendency to
be aggressive to service providers. The
psychodynamic perspective would explain
this by saying that the individuals
aggressive behaviour is due to experiencing
inner turmoil and tensions and conflicts
from the person’s past are projected into
current situations. Service providers should
not take this personally – it will be due to
unresolved conflicts with one’s same sex
parent. In severe cases help should be
provided through the use of
psychotherapy.
The elderly take great comfort in others
being interested in their life and what they
have experienced. Talking about their past
is very therapeutic for them and should be
encouraged under this approach. Day care
Freud’s ideas have become most valued in
the world of therapy, where an
understanding of unconscious desires,
family relationships & dreams have proved
invaluable to understanding what is going
on in the minds of patients. Being able to
share past memories helps some people to
discover what is the underlying cause of
their problem. Carers need to be aware of
this and available if a resident wants to
talk. If they feel it is ‘out of their depth’
they could refer the service user for
psychoanalysis.
Toddlers need to be treated as individuals
and should be given the opportunity to
do things for themselves, otherwise this
will cause them to develop feelings of
inadequacy and self-doubt.
Carers should take into consideration any
form of distress shown by the individual
e.g. a service user may have a tendency to
be aggressive to service providers. The
psychodynamic perspective would explain
centres are places to socialise and
opportunity should be provided for this.
Children should be praised a lot so that
they feel a sense of self-worth. Without
this they may feel self doubt which can
make life a lot more difficult for them.
Freud suggested that children have
undeveloped egos. Therefore they do not
have anything to balance out the
pressures from the id and the superego.
Therefore it is important that early years
workers show children what is acceptable
behaviour and help them to differentiate
between what is right and wrong to
develop their ego. Without help in
developing this children can grow up to
This perspective can also be used to
explain phobias. This perspective could
help us to understand a service user who
has a phobia of needles. Freud would say
that the phobia is a symbol of an
unconscious problem or past experience in
childhood e.g. a patient may have been
hurt by a needle or had an awful
experience – poking around for a vein. Now
they are older and may need blood tests,
maybe insulin dependent diabetic - they
would need psychoanalysis in the day care
centre to get over this phobia
We need to be careful not to make
assumptions about services users – their
behaviour may be due to earlier childhood
experiences. It is important to understand
this and not to label them (stereotype
them). Instead we should be recognising
this and providing a support plan.
this by saying that the individuals
aggressive behaviour is due to experiencing
inner turmoil and tensions and conflicts
from the person’s past are projected into
current situations. Service providers should
not take this personally – it will be due to
unresolved conflicts with one’s same sex
parent. In severe cases help should be
provided through the use of
psychotherapy.
This perspective can also be used to
explain phobias. This perspective could
help us to understand a service user who
has a phobia of needles. Freud would say
that the phobia is a symbol of an
unconscious problem or past experience in
childhood e.g. a patient may have been
hurt by a needle or had an awful
experience – poking around for a vein. Now
they are older and may need blood tests,
maybe insulin dependent diabetic - they
would need psychoanalysis in the
residential setting to get over this phobia
We need to be careful not to make
assumptions about services users – their
behaviour may be due to earlier childhood
experiences. It is important to understand
this and not to label them (stereotype
them). Instead we should be recognising
this and providing a support plan.
become individuals who do not fit into
society
Freud believed that unresolved issues in
the early stages of development could
affect a person’s ability to cope with later
life. Anyone involved in early years
education has an important role to play in
a child’s life according to this theory e.g.
if a young child is with a practitioner who
does not meet their needs adequately
then the child may develop a feeling of
mistrust which could last throughout their
life.
At a setting children need to be
encouraged to be active and take the
initiative otherwise, they find in later life
that they will have little sense of purpose.
Fixation at any of the psychosexual stages
can result in extreme behaviours associated
with that stage in adulthood – day care
centres may find these behaviours hard to
manage, There are now courses in day
care centres for staff called ‘managing
challenging behaviour’ which staff are
advised to go on.
A resident who is anally retentive i.e. hates
mess, is obsessively tidy and is punctual
will not be able to help this. This will be
because of early or harsh potty training in
the anal stage (18-36 months). Service
providers need to make allowances for this
and realise that the resident’s
characteristics are a result of their
childhood and is something they have to
live with or receive therapy for.
Service providers may be needed to help
some service user’s deal with threatening
events. For example, Mary may adopt
intellectualism because she has found out
she has leukaemia. Service providers will
need to help Mary deal with her emotions
as this defence mechanism does not help
emotional feelings. Day care centres are
able to offer this support.
Psychodynamic theories have also led to
childcare practitioners to ‘act out’ and use
creative activities to pour out feelings
that they might not otherwise be able to
express; for example sadness and worry
Service providers will need to be aware
that individuals behave the way they do
because of fixation. For example, one
service user may be very sarcastic (fixation
of oral stage) and service providers should
A resident who is messy and disorganised,
likewise may not be able to help it. This will
be because they have not had strict rules
when being potty trained or potty training
was introduced too late. According to Freud
service providers and users have to put up
with this as it is fixed in childhood. It may
also explain rebellious behaviour within the
home as this type of personality lacks
respect.
Freud would suggest that those residents
who settle happily into their new home are
not experiencing any inner turmoil. And will
have gone through the 5 stages
successfully to be content. They will also
if daddy has to go into hospital for an
operation. Books and toys will aid in
preparing children for big events in their
lives e.g. going into hospital or going on a
long distance flight.
This approach may be used in a setting to
explain why a child is behaving in a
particular way e.g. childhood experiences
before now may be the reason why a
child is misbehaving or their personality
may not have developed fully. This
approach may help personality and
behavioural issues to be recognised more
efficiently.
try to understand why this is instead of
being offended by it.
have learnt how to communicate their need
earlier in life and will have had them met to
be a content, stable person.
The care worker should recognise that the
client cannot control their unconscious
conflicts or urges and so should not take
their behaviour
personally. Carers
should not make
assumptions about
people and be aware
of the importance of
the client’s previous life experiences.
A well – adjusted adult will have a
personality that lies between extremes and
will not display extreme personality
characteristics. If this is the case, a
resident will need to be assessed and a
care plan put in place as their may be
some mental health needs.
Early experiences within first 4 years of
family life greatly influence personality
development – it is important that the
practitioners develop a good working
relationship with parents to help resolve a
child’s negative early experiences i.e.
they may be able to give advice to
parents as part of their role.
Suppression or too much focus on a child
can be dangerous to healthy development
of the personality – practitioners need to
be aware of this when caring for children
– give them independence!
Carers should encourage clients to express
their emotions, to talk through their issues
and face them. By confronting their
anxiety, the carer can help them deal with
their conflict in a healthier way.
Service providers need to be trained in
ways of treating different residents. Early
life may affect how they behave. For
example, residents may love life or have
little purpose in life depending on whether
they were encouraged to be active as a
child.
When a child’s basic needs are met by a
carer, pleasure starts to occur for that
child which they build upon to become
Carers should encourage clients to express
their emotions, to talk through their issues
and face them. By confronting their
anxiety, the carer can help them deal with
their conflict in a healthier way.
happy. We therefore need to make sure
we meet their basic needs – love, food,
shelter, warmth etc…
Fixation at any one stage can affect adult
personality. EYPs need to ensure that
children pass through each of the stages
allowing children to experience their
feelings without guilt or excessive
pressure to conform to preconceived
ideas so to prevent fixation.
Service providers need to prevent any
trauma being caused and if trauma is
caused, it needs to be solved so it does
not affect adult personality. E.g. a child
may ask to perform a solo in the school
play however after doing the solo other
children laugh at them. The child may
experience trauma and humiliation from
this and EYPs will need to resolve this so
as defence mechanisms do not set in and
affect adult personality.