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The Psychodynamic Theory - Online Term Paper

The Psychodynamic Theory

The Psychodynamic Theory
Grantham University
Boehm, Edward
14OCT2012

The psychodynamic approach attempts to understand behavior in terms of the workings of the mind, with an emphasis on motivation and the role of past experience. The approach was pioneered by Sigmund Freud, who developed psychoanalytic theory. Sigmund Freud originated the psychoanalytic approach based on his experiences in his psychiatric practice and developed a technique called free association, which requires a patient to relax and report everything that comes to mind no matter how trivial or how strange it might seem. Using this technique, he found that patient's often revived painful memories reaching back ...

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and the superego. The id seeks immediate gratification and is not constrained by reality. It operates at the unconscious level. The ego operates through the reality principle, which seeks to gratify impulses of the id realistically and to bring long-term pleasure without pain. The ego operates at both the conscious and pre-conscious levels. The superego acts as a voice of conscience and operates mostly at the preconscious level of awareness.

During a child's development, the ego strategically uses defense mechanisms to deal with the anxiety produced by conflicting impulses from the id and the superego. These defense mechanisms include repression, reaction formation, projection, displacement, regression, sublimation and denial. These defense mechanisms are a vital key to Freud's theory. It provides a basic explanation of how thoughts and experiences end up in the unconscious. If you look at it this way the ego, id and super - ego are not static or solid, but rather ...

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 4/9/2014 02:46:59 AM
Submitted By: eboehm
Category: Psychology
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 570
Pages: 3

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