Psychodynamic Approach

The psychodynamic approach's main focuses is on explaining and treating mental disorders. Many treatments were developed due to this. Here is an explanation on the contributions of the Psychodynamic approach in relation to mental disorders.

Freuds Theory of Personailty states that our personality is made up of three parts.
The first is our ID, which is the only part present from birth. This is the part that seeks instant gratification of its needs. It works by the 'pleasure principle' and does not want to wait for satisfaction and wants to remove any pressure or tension.
The second part is our Ego, this is us as we are. It develops from the age of 2, and is logical and rational. It works on the 'reality principle' and balances the demands of the ID with the morals of the Superego and can delay gratification until appropriate.
The last part of our personality is known as the Superego which develops around the ages of 3-6, it is our awareness of the good and bad things. It works on the 'morality principle' in which we develop a conscience (punishing parent) which makes us feel bad for doing bad things and the ego-ideal (rewarding parent) which makes us feel good for doing good things. The idea of the punishing/rewarding parent comes from internalisation of the moral code of our same sex parent, which is explained in Freuds Psychosexual Theory of Development.

The establishment of mental disorders could come from a person whose ego is in conflict with the superego and the ID. This is because the ID may want something but the ego and the superego are preventing it from having it, this could then cause anxiety. The person then becomes anxious which is stored into the unconcious. However, if a build up of anxiety happens then this may come out into the conscious, which may lead to the anxiety being redirected onto something else causing a phobia or any other serious mental disorder.

The personality can be displayed as what is known as the 'Iceberg' model, which was also developed by Sigmund Freud.

From Freuds Theory of Personality he also developed 'Defence Mechanisms' which help protect the ego from any harm because the ego does not want to be traumatised. This all happens unconciously and any conscious awareness could result in a mental disorder.

Sigmund Freud also developed Psychoanalysis Therapy as a result from his theories. This was developed specifcally for those with mental disorders which were stemmed from culturally unacceptable desires or fantasies that were of a sexual nature, which he believed, were repressed into the unconscious mind. He believed that all of the mental disorders (neuroses) came from an inablility at childhood to resolve the Oedipus/Electra complex and used the famous case of 'Little Hans' to prove this. Little Hans aka Herbert Graf (right) went on to be a successful opera producer. He was the basis for all Freuds theories, and was the only evidence Freud had to prove that his theories and therapies were effective.

Oedipus Complex: A term used to describe a boy's feelings towards his mother and his anger and jelousy towards his father. According to Frued, the boy wishes to possess his mother and replace his father who he sees as a rival for his mother's affections. It occurs in the Phallic stage of Freuds Psychosexual Theory of Development. The term was derived from the character named Sophocles' Oedipus Rex who accidently kills his father and then marries his mother.

Electra Complex: Comparable to the Oedipus Complex. It is a term used to describe a girl's romantic feelings towards her father and anger towards her mother.

These complexes develop at the age of 3-5/6 years old, during the Phallic stage of Freud's Psychosexual Theory of Development. The development suggests that we go through 5 main stages up until we become mature adults. Failure to develop at any of these stages results in fixation, which then could lead onto a mental disorder.

The Oral Stage (0-1 years): Children learn everything about the environment through their mouth. They also seek gratification and pleasure through their mouth, so they will be concentrated on sucking, biting and feeding.
A failure to develop in this stage leads to a fixation due to being under/over fed as a baby. This then can lead to the mental disorder of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. It could also lead to any mouth-centred behaviours like smoking.

The Anal Stage (1-3 years): Children learn everything about the environment through their anus. The child gains pleasure by withholding or eliminating faeces which brings up a conflict between the ID and the Ego. Parents at this stage encourage their children to potty train at an appropriate time/place, but this conflicts with the ID who wants to defecate now to gain their pleasure. So the Ego has to balance the conflict which causes two main personality traits.

Too much gratification leads to being an "Anally Expulsive" personality who are messy, disorganised and reckless.

Too little gratification leads to being an "Anally Retentative" personality who are careful, organised, meticulus and tight with money.

These fixations could easily lead to depression, for example:

• Anally Explusive: If your messy and unorganised, you may end up doing poor in exams because you have not got the work in your folders organised, this could lead to depression
• Anally Retentive: If your tight with money, many people may pick up on this causing criticism. This could lead to you needing cognitive behavioural therapy (see Cognitive page) because your anxiety spirals out of control about what people think of you, thus causing depression.

The Phallic Stage (3-5/6): Children gain pleasure and their gratification from stimulation of the genitals. As mentioned above, the development of the Oedipus/Electra complex develops here because children are becoming interested in the genitals of the opposite sex.
If the complexes are not resolved then this can lead to a variety of mental disorders because the child does not gain understanding of gender appropriate behaviour. Also their Superego will not have developed properly causing a lack of morals. Other disorders include anxiety and guilt about sex, fear of castration and also a narcissistic personality (excessive self-love).

Latency Stage (5/6-puberty): The least sexual of all the stages because children start to redirect their attention to acquiring new skills and knowledge.
No fixation at this stage.

Genital Stage (puberty-maturity): Children focus on the genitals in gaining pleasure as a form of sexuality (adult).
Any problems due to fixation in earlier stages is thought to occur in this stage.

The Psychodynamic Approach states that any mental disorder stems from trauma/bad experience in childhood such as abuse. Both Freud and Bowlby each had their own theories but both agreed on any factors which effect the development of children could lead to any kind of mental disorder.John Bowlby was also a Psychodynamic Psychologist who offered his reasons and explanations as to where mental disorders originated from. Bowlby's Theory of Attachment believed that a bond between the mother and her child was the most important thing that prevented mental illness in later life. He placed emphasis on genetics for the bond, as he believed that babies were genetically programmed to behave in a certain way which kept the mothers attention e.g. crying and mothers inherited the gene to respond to their child, this is whats known as 'Synchrony of Action.' Bowlby then went on to explain that if the bond was delayed until after two and a half to 3 years after the birth of the baby, then their development will have been significantly affected. This became known as Bowlby's 'Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis' in which the child could grow up with the condition 'Affectionless Psychopathy' (Not actually a known condition, just one Bowlby invented).
He used his 44 juvenile thieves study to support this, which was based on Harlows study on monkey's.
Bowlby's Contribution
However John Bowlby's attachment theory lead to the development of 'Theraplay' which is a play therapy that has the intention of helping parents and their children build better attachment relationships through attachment-based play.