1. The psychodynamic explanation of mental illness

2. Unconscious conflicts
The assumption of the psychodynamic perspective is that our behaviour is determined by our unconscious.
The id and superego are constantly conflicting with each other. If we give in to our id then we feel guilty for letting our desires get the better of us. If we always let the superego control us then this can lead to depression, damaged relationships and even murder.
The ego is meant to use defence mechanisms to protect us from these conflicts. These defence mechanisms can often lead to signs of mental illness.
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3. Defence mechanisms
Using denial to block a painful truth can often lead to people not acknowledging that relationships are over, resulting in anxiety and depression.
Repressing memories from disturbing experiences in childhood can lead to unhealthy behaviours in the future.
The quality of our defence mechanisms is very dependent on childhood experiences.
A child who suffers from a parental bereavement may not have the developed defences to handle a major loss.
A cold, rejecting mother can lead to a weak ego where the id is out of control. With the id out of control, the person may not have the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy.
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4. Treatments – Dream analysis
The focus of therapy according to the psychodynamic perspective is to resolve the unconscious conflicts in the mind.
One way that the unconscious is reflected is through dreams.
Freud claimed that dreams contained two parts: 1) the manifest content (what you are dreaming about); but also 2) the latent content (what the meaning of your dream is).
It is understanding the latent content that will help the therapist to treat the patient.
Dreams are constructed by turning the latent content (for example, a fear of exams) into manifest content in a dream.
This is achieved through condensation and symbolism – where people and feelings in the real world are represented in a different way in a dream.
Emotions that you feel in the real world (e.g. fear of failure) are then displaced onto the manifest content of the dream that seemingly appears unrelated (e.g. fear while falling in a dream).
The aim of therapy (psychoanalysis) is to reverse this dream-making process so the patient understands the meaning behind their dream. Once this is achieved the therapist can make suggests about what the patient needs to do.
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5. Treatments – Free association
Another way that unconscious conflicts can be found is free association.
In free association the patient talks out loud continuously about everything that comes to mind. This must be done without processing or editing out anything.
As Freud felt that 90 % of behaviour is determined by the unconscious then even the most trivial comments can have a deeper meaning.
The role of the therapist is to identify key points the patient says and make suggestions that the patient can either accept or reject.
Free association can be carried out either by verbal or written methods (sometimes writing down something is less embarrassing than saying it out loud).
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6. Evaluating psychoanalysis
The are many critics and proponents of psychoanalysis.
Szasz (1990) claims that Freud was a myth maker and falsified stories to provide evidence of his theories (i.e. Little Hans).
Eysenck (1952) found that patients improved significantly after therapy whether or not they received psychotherapy.
On the other hand Leichsenring et al. (2004) found that short-term psychotherapy gave significant improvements to general psychiatric symptoms, while Tschushke et al. (2007) found that patients had better outcomes from prolonged psychoanalysis.
Berin and Garfield (1971) also found that 80% of patients benefitted when they had psychoanalysis compared to other therapies.
However, research comparing psychoanalysis to other therapies like CBT is limited as investigating long-term impacts of treatments is time consuming and longitudinal research is yet to be published.
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7. The cognitive neuroscience explanation of mental illness

8. What is cognitive neuroscience?
Rather than simply looking at cognitive factors and biological factors as an explanation of behaviour, cognitive neuroscience will look at how biological factors (i.e. a part of the brain) can have an impact on cognitive processes (e.g. memory).
In terms of mental illness we can use brain imaging techniques such as MRI or PET scans to identify which areas of the brain are affected by the disorder and then this helps to understand how these might affect cognitive processes – which in turn affects behaviour.
For example, someone with low serotonin levels – this can lead to an impairment in cognition, which results in a depressed mood.
Rather than simply saying that low serotonin levels result in a depressed mood there is more understanding because the cognition element is also being recognised.
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9. An explanation of depression
Neurotropic factors are proteins that aid the growth and survival of neurons. Brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) are the most common of these found in the brain.
Stress is linked to a decrease of BDNF in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is linked to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system (HPA) which controls stress through serotonin.
If the HPA is not able to cope with the stress, the lack of serotonin will lead to depression.
Shrayana (2002) found that increasing BDNF levels in the brain can act as an anti-depressant in mice.
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10. An explanation of schizophrenia
Barch (2005) suggested that cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia like disturbances in memory can be explained by a neural deficiency.
A neural deficiency in working memory (an area of the brain that controls input and output of stimuli, visual, spatial, acoustic and language production) could lead to some of the symptoms shown by people with schizophrenia.
Deficits in episodic memory (memory of events that have happened to us) could also lead to confusion seen in people with schizophrenia.
Cognitive neuroscience is a new psychological area, adding to our explanation of disorders. It allows for more cognitive-based treatments to be used that focus on cognitive skills impaired by neural deficiencies.
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