The Psychodynamic Perspective

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THE PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE

The psychodynamic perspective believes that our personality and behaviour are ‘determined’, this means that they are driven by our experiences in childhood.  The term ‘psychodynamic’ denotes the active forces within the personality that motivate behaviour and the inner causes of behaviour.  Much of our behaviour is determined by unconscious thoughts, wishes and memories.  What we are consciously aware of at any one time represents the tip of an iceberg.  Most of our thoughts and ideas are not accessible at that moment (pre conscious) or are totally inaccessible (unconscious).  The original psychodynamic theories have been developed from Sigmund Freud’s ideas.  He proposed that any unpleasant memories, desires or instincts are pushed deep into the unconscious so they don’t make us anxious.  This is known as repression.  Freud also believed that the best way of finding out the contents of the unconscious mind was through dream analysis.  

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Freud proposed that the mind is made up of three parts.  Id, the instinct part of our personality, present at birth it is full of drives and desires, the id wants ‘instant satisfaction’.  Ego, the regulator, controls the id by making it take control of reality and what is possible in the real world. Then the superego, the voice of conscience which develops as a result of childhood interactions with parents.  The ego has the most difficult job as it is constantly trying to cope with the demands of the id and superego.

Freud also began to ...

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