Psychodynamic Approach Basic Assumptions and Distinguishing Features

Basic Assumptions Behaviour is determined by unconscious mental processes. Early childhood experiences are important in the development of the adult personality. Childhood development, up to teenage years, takes place through psychosexual stages.

The personality has three components – id, ego and superego. The ego uses defence mechanisms to protect itself from harm and from unpleasant thoughts. Psychoanalysis as a therapy can uncover unconscious thoughts, particularly through the analysis of dreams.

The typical method of research is through individual case studies, which are then used to make generalisations about our mental life. The focus of case studies has been on people suffering from a variety of mental disorders, rather than on normal, well adjusted people. Early childhood experiences, especially those between birth and three years of age, are of vital importance for mental functioning as an adult.

The role of the unconscious It is a reservoir for disturbing memories from childhood that are kept from consciousness in order to allow the adult to function in their everyday life. It is a reservoir for biological instincts and drives, which largely result from the sex instinct, many of which would be distributing to the individual if they were to become conscious.

Psychosexual stages Freud claimed that the development took place through five main psychosexual stages. Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital These stages are the result of two basic instincts, the sex instinct (life instinct) and the death instinct (aggressive instinct).

Freud likened the sex instinct to a basic desire for pleasure, and the psychosexual stages relate to different areas of the body that give pleasure or gratification to the child. Normal development for the child is to pass through one stage and on to the next one. However, some children get ‘stuck’ or fixated at a particular stage, and this has consequences for the adult personality and behaviour.