Critically evaluate the psychodynamic approach.

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Critically evaluate the psychodynamic approach.

        The psychodynamic approach, developed by Freud, emphasizes the interplay of unconscious psychological processes in determining human thought, feelings, and behaviour. The basis of this approach is that psychological factors play a major role in determining behaviour and shaping personality. Freud divided the human psyche into three; the ID, ego and superego. He said you were born with ID which was in your unconscious and it comprised of selfishness and lack of awareness. The other two parts; the ego and superego were said to be in your conscious. The ego was comprised of awareness and consciousness and the superego of definite conscious where you begin caring about others.

        Freud believed that personality develops in psychosexual stages; in each stage a part of the body becomes the child's main source of pleasure. Failure to resolve conflicts at any stage can cause fixation, an unconscious preoccupation with the pleasure area associated with that stage. Personality characteristics are a reflection of each person's fixation. The oral stage occurs during the first year of life because the mouth is the center of pleasure. Babies obtain gratification through sucking and biting. As adults, when you bite your nails, comfort eat, etc, you are regressing to the oral stage. The anal stage occurs during the second year when toilet training begins. The ego evolves during this stage as the child vacillates between id impulses and parental demands. It focuses on potty training and the expulsion and retention of faeces. Excessive retention means the child is likely to have been potty trained too early and in adult years will lead to being excessively tidy. The phallic stage emerges at three and lasts until age five. The boy experiences the Oedipus complex; he sexually desires his mother and wants to kill his father out of jealousy. The girl develops penis envy and begins to hate her mother for not providing a penis. The girl then transfers her love to her father, which is known as the Electra complex. Also in this stage the child gets gratification through genitals. After age five, the latency period ensues, during which sexual impulses lie dormant and the child turns away from anything sexually related. During the genital stage, which begins at adolescence and lasts until death, sexual desires reappear and boys and girls begin to get more involved with the opposite sex.

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        The ego uses defense mechanisms to protect the individual from feeling anxious about id impulses. Defense mechanisms distort or deny reality and protect the ego from distress and allow the person to cope with life. Defense mechanisms include; repression, where you prevent unacceptable desires by making them unconscious, therefore making you not aware of them. For example, victims of rape attacks may repress memories because they do not wish to remember them. Projection is another defense mechanism when peoples own faults or wishes are attributed to someone else, for example, calling someone else angry when it is actually you who ...

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