Psychodynamic Approach

Psychodynamic Approach

1. ID

   • Driven by the pleasure principle
     • Innate drive to seek immediate satisfaction
   • Irrational and primitive
   • Unconscious

2. Ego

   • Driven by the reality principle
   • Developed when child cannot get what it wants
     • Makes child accommodate to the demands of the environment
     • By age 1
   • Conscious and rational part of the psyche

3. Superego

   • Develops at age five
   • "Above-I"
   • Embodies our conscious
   • Sense of right and wrong

4. Ego defences

   • Ego mediates between id and superego
     • Constant conflicting demands
   • Reduces the anxiety experienced because of the conflict
     • Repression
       • Putting the memory in the unconscious
     • Projection
       • Blaming someone else
     • Denial
     • Displacement
       • Venting anger somewhere else
     • Intellectualisation
     • Regression
       • Behaving like a child

5. Outline of approach

   • Mental disorder result from psychological sources, not physical
     • Unresolved childhood issues
   • Unresolved conflicts cause mental disorder
     • Ego defence mechanisms
       • Cause the changes in behaviour
   • Early experiences can cause mental disorder
     • In childhood ego is not developed enough to cope with trauma
       • Loss
         • Parent
         • Close relative
       • Trauma
         • Car crash
         • Illness
       • Tragic events
         • Made homeless
         • Loss
         • Trauma
   • Unconscious motivations can cause mental disorder