Psychodynamic Theory

Psychodynamic Theory

Psychodynamic Theory

Freud's psychodynamic theory

Sigmund Freud believed that people have three levels of awareness, which are the conscious, preconscious, and the unconscious. Freud developed a detailed theory on how our own thoughts and feelings affect our actions. It is known as Freud's Psychodynamic Theory. The words psyche or "mind" and dynamo meaning "power" are derived from the Greek language. He believed that we can infer the existence of the unconscious through slips of the tongue and dreams. Years later this theory is still prevalent in today's psychology. Today, many therapists use psychodynamic psychotherapy, which tries to get the patient to bring to the surface their true feelings, so that they can experience them and understand them. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy uses the basic assumption that everyone has an unconscious mind, and that feelings held in the unconscious mind are often too painful to be faced. So people come up with defenses to protect themselves from knowing about these painful feelings. An example of one of these defenses is called denial. Psychodynamic therapy assumes that these defenses have gone wrong and are causing more harm than good that is why the person needed to seek help. It tries to unravel them, as once again. (Ahles, 2004)

Today, few psychotherapists practice the traditional form of psychoanalysis that lasts for years. "There are many different forms of short-term dynamic therapies based on traditional psychoanalytic notions. It focuses primarily on how the unconscious and conscious relate and work with each other. Finally, personality development involves not only learning to regulate sexual and aggressive feelings but also moving from an immature, socially dependent state to a mature, interdependent one. Without the participation of conscious reflection, scenarios and forms of tragic force, of shuddering effect, full of anxious affect take place. " (Bonniver, 1992)Freud also had developed the idea of psychoanalysis. " (Westen, 1998) Another technique that Freud made famous is dream interpretation, which played as a large role in psychoanalysis and his psychodynamic theory. All interactions are affected to a lesser or greater degree by past behaviors. The mind is not a single entity and our own thoughts and feelings affect our actions daily. "Psychoanalysis was once a single theory, identified with its founder and his particular ideas, so that summarizing its basic tenets was once less problematic. Therapists today use psychodynamic theory psychodynamic therapy and psychoanalysis to help their patients identify their hidden feelings and desires and bring them to life, then learn how to deal with them once they've surfaced. Third, stable personality patterns begin to form in childhood, and childhood experiences play an important role in personality development, particularly in shaping the ways people form later social relationships. The therapist uses a number of different techniques in order to do this. ed that once you are aware of what is really going on in your mind the feelings will not be as painful. Some of them are quite famous, for example, by getting you to talk about whatever comes into your head, or by ...