PSYC1010/1011: Lecture

Psychodynamic Psychology: An Introduction
© Dave Hiles, October 2003

Sigmund Freud was founder of the the psychodynamic approach to psychology and psychotherapy and is largely responsible for the modern way in which we think of ourselves. In his theories, he offered a new language for discussing mental events. In his clinical work, he took seriously the anxieties and disturbances his client's experienced that others might dismiss as trivial. He observed how people often experience phenomena as happening to them, rather than under conscious control. This included dreams, free associations, slips of the tongue and mistakes, re-emergent feelings of anger, fear and despair, neurotic symptoms, and changes in bodily states (breath, heart beat, etc.). In such experiences, in the tension between consciousness and unconsciousness, there is almost the feeling of "losing oneself", and so the idea of therapy began, as a search to make whole, to recover "lost selves".

(1) SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939)

(2) SIGMUND FREUD - His influences
     G FAMILY/ CULTURAL BACKGROUND (Brentano, Schopenhauer, Milton, Goethe)
     G EDUCATION/ SCHOLARSHIP (M.D.)
     G BIOLOGY/PHYSIOLOGY (Darwin, Brucke, Helmholtz)
     G SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
     G NEUROLOGY/NEUROPATHOLOGY (Charcot)
     G SELF ANALYSIS (Fliess)
     G CLINICAL PRACTICE (Breuer)
     G HIS FOLLOWERS & CONTEMPORARY EVENTS

(3) FREUD's PLACE IN PSYCHOLOGY:
      THE FOUR FORCES IN PSYCHOLOGY
  M 1st force: PSYCHODYNAMIC
         Freud, Jung, Adler, etc. (Metaphors: depth, forces, conflict, energy, drive, etc.)
    M 2nd force: BEHAVIOURISM
         Skinner, Watson, Eysenck, etc. (Metaphors: process, mechanism, computation, animal behaviour)
    M 3rd force: HUMANISTIC-EXISTENTIAL
         Maslow, Rogers, Perls, Laing, Jung, etc. (Metaphors: growth, potential, wholeness, self, etc.)
    M 4th force: TRANSPERSONAL
         Maslow, Wilber, Grof, Jung, etc. (Metaphors: levels, health, light, god-head, suffering, Self, etc.)

(4) SIGMUND FREUD - Some key concepts

(5) STRUCTURE OF THE PSYCHE

(6) DEVELOPMENT OF THE PSYCHE

G Projection is a process of unconsciously attributing one's own traits, attitudes, or subjective feelings to others; ascribing to others one's own unacknowledged desires and faults as a defence against guilt or inadequacy; or perceiving objective stimuli in line with personal interests, desires, fears or expectations. The boundaries between self and other become blurred by such projections. The boundaries of the therapeutic alliance become powerful metaphors for the exploration of self and otherness.

G Transference is a term coined by Freud to describe the process whereby a client shifts affects/feelings applicable to another person onto the therapist/counsellor, eg. the client projects onto the counsellor the hatred he feels toward his father. Transference can be positive or negative. It is interesting to note that transference comes from the Latin:- "to carry over", which in Greek is the word metaphor.

G Counter-transference concerns the arousal of the therapist/counsellor's repressed feelings by the therapeutic situation. Once seen as an embarrassment to the therapeutic alliance, it is now viewed as an important site of unconscious communication. With appropriate self-awareness the counsellor can gain insight into the counter-transference.

G Working alliance - a major contribution of psychoanalytic practice is the emphasis on a working alliance, i.e. client and therapist working together, the therapist not involved in offering treatment per se to the client, but the therapist acting as facilitator of growth and change, with the client possessing the potential and structures for change. This alliance and interpersonal connectedness between therapist and client is fundamental to all counselling and psychotherapeutic practice.

G Psychoanalytic techniques include:- the "talking cure", dream analysis, free association, exploration of early issues and fixations, analysis of unconscious communication (e.g. transference/countertransference, the minutiae of the consulting situation, Primary/Secondary process thinking, etc), interpretation of resistance and defence mechanisms.

G Resistance involves opposition to any attempt to lay bare the content of unconscious material. This usually takes the form of defence mechanisms such as denial, repression, regression, intellectualization, displacement, sublimation, etc, that enable a person to avoid awareness of unpleasant feelings, or anxiety. By the process/skill of confrontation the counsellor/therapist can challenge such resistance.

(8) EVALUATING PSYCHOANALYSIS and FREUDIAN THEORY
The contribution of Freud to the development of clinical practice in the field of psychotherapy is enormous. It has been remarked that all counselling and psychotherapy theory is really "a footnote to Freud". In the areas of social and cultural theory, Freud too has made a very major impact. Some of the strengths of Freud’s ideas include:-

(9) DEVELOPMENTS SINCE FREUD
This is an enormous topic, and only the briefest of outlines can be offered, with an emphasis on British psychoanalytic movement.

G Some key followers in the tradition of Freud:
        Alfred Adler  (Individual Psychology)
        Carl Jung   (Analytical Psychology)
        Otto Rank
        Wilhelm Reich
        Karl Abraham
        Sandor Ferenczi
        A. A. Brill
        Ernest Jones
        Melanie Klein
        Karen Horney
        Erich Fromm
        Anna Freud
        Erik Erikson

(10) Further Reading:

Appignanesi, R. & Zarate (1992) Freud for Beginners. Icon.
Craib, I. (2001) Psychoanalysis: A critical introduction. Polity Press.
Jacobs, M. (1992) Sigmund Freud. Sage.

Internet Links:
You will find some useful links at:

        http://psy.dmu.ac.uk/drhiles/Links.htm#Psychotherapy

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