Psychodynamic Counselling Theory - Assignment Example

Outcome Psychodynamic views of human nature The psychodynamic tradition believes that the behavior of a human being is determined by the irrationalfears, anxieties, worries, unconscious motivations, biological drives, instincts etc., which are stored in his unconscious mind (Corey, 2009,p. 61). Freud believed that throughput his life, human being tries to fulfill his instincts by seeking pleasure and avoiding pain (Corey, 2009,p. 61). According to psychoanalytic view, the three psychological structures that make man’s personality are id, ego and superego (Corey, 2009,p.61). “Id is the biological component, ego is the psychological component and superego is the social component” (Corey, 2009,p.61). As id, ego and superego are the aspects that make an integrated personality, Freud believed that to resolve the emotional problems of man, one has to understand his psychological structure and his unconscious mind (Corey, 2009,p.61). Assumptions about human nature The psychodynamic tradition and approaches to counselling are based on Freud’s theories and concepts of the unconscious mind (Dryden & Mytton, 1999, P.17 ). The psychodynamic approaches assume that the memories, emotions, desires and thoughts which are repressed in the unconscious mind in order to avoid conflicts, have a great impact on behavior, thoughts and feelings of a person throughout his life (Dryden & Mytton, 1999, P. 17). Like psychoanalysis, psychodynamics believe that the unconscious mind of a human being plays a major role in the growth, development, mental health and psychological disorders of a person (“What is..”, 2006). They assume that the root cause of all the emotional problems of human being are his painful childhood experiences and hence, they believe that the only way to resolve the mental and emotional problems is to bring these repressed emotions to his conscious mind and make the client aware of the reasons behind his emotional problems (Dryden & Mytton, 1999, P. 17). Hence, The goal of the counsellor in the psychodynamic counselling is to help a person suffering from mental disorder to gain an insight into his memories, early relationship patterns and other evidences which are suppressed in the unconscious mind so as to make him aware of the power of unconscious mind and its effects on his current life (“What is..”, 2006). However, later on, many psychologists broadened Freud’s ideas and developed their own theories as they found some of Freud’s ideas unacceptable (Dryden & Mytton, 1999, P. 18). So, psychodynamic is a generic term that is used to describe the theories which have Feud’s idea at its core but have developed their own concepts and models to study human behavior and psychology (Dryden & Mytton, 1999, P. 18). Psychosocial development The turning point in the history of psychoanalytic thought was given by Jung who proposed the idea that personality development is an ongoing process and occurs in adulthood too (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields,2006,p. 352). Jung’s idea proved to be a break from Freudian thought which believed that after adolescence stage, the personality development stops (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields,2006,p. 353). However, the best-known life-span theory was Erik Erikson’s (1982), who stressed the importance of the role of social elements in the development of personality and developed a psychosocial theory showing the sequential and orderly manner in which people grow during their life-span (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields,2006,p. 353). Erikson proposed that there are eight stages in a life cycle of human being and according to him, every stage brings a struggle between the inner psychological influence and the outer social influences (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields,2006,p. 353). Personality is determined by how a person resolves and interacts with these two forces (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields,2006,p. 353). Erikson believed that as later stages and the future behavior of a person has its roots in the past, the initial stages of development should be positive in order to assure a positive and healthy development of that person(Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields,2006,p. 353). Hence, as the first stage in theory is trust versus mistrust, he believes that an infant who develops a feeling of trust in the world feels very secure and comfortable (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields,2006,p. 353). The remaining stages describe the conflict between different emotions and they are as follows: 2. autonomy vs. shame, 3. initiative vs. guilt, 4. peer acceptance vs. inferiority, 5. identity vs. identity confusion, 6. intimacy vs. isolation, 7. generativity vs. stagnation, and 8. integrity vs. despair (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields,2006,p. 353). According to Erikson, people who resolve these conflicts in different stages gain the psychological strength of wisdom in their old age (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields,2006,p. 354). Psychosexual development In the year 1964, Freud proposed a psychosexual theory in which he stated that to fulfill different biological needs, a child goes through five psychosexual stages and they are oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital (Sigelman & Rider, 2006, p. 31). Each stage brings a conflict between the biological instincts and the social demands (Sigelman & Rider, 2006, p. 31). A child who experiences a happy upbringing is able to resolve the conflict easily; however, a child brought up in harsh environments develops anxiety and increase in the conflict (Sigelman & Rider, 2006, p. 31). Hence, different defense mechanisms are developed by a child to overcome the conflict (Sigelman & Rider, 2006, p. 31). Children who do not resolve a conflict of a particular stage gets fixated at that stage and display a behavior pattern in the future which shows the fixation to that stage (Sigelman & Rider, 2006, p. 31). For example, a child who is deprived of the needs at the oral stage tries to compensate the lack of that need by developing habit of smoking, excessive talking or developing overdependence of others in the adulthood (Sigelman & Rider, 2006, p. 31). In this way child goes through different psychosexual stages and if deprived of the needs, he develops different habits to compensate the feeling of deprivation (Sigelman & Rider, 2006, p. 32). According to Freud, “the psychosexual development stops at adolescence and the individual remains in the genital stage throughout adulthood” (Sigelman & Rider, 2006, p. 32). Outcome 2 Analytical Psychology According to Schultz and Schultz (2005), through analytical psychology, Carl Jung has described how human nature is influenced by “history, mythology, anthropology and religion” (Corey, 2009, p.79). Jung proposed that man goes through great amount of changes in his midlife as during midlife he starts living according to his own deep unconscious desires rather than by the values and behavior patterns that he acquires from the environment (Corey, 2009,p.79). Contrary to Freud who believes that only past life has influence on human beings, Jung’s theory believes that human being is influenced by both, his past and his goals about the future (Corey, 2009,p.79). Hence, according to Jung, human being’s innate goal is to achieve ‘individuation’ by creating harmony between his conscious and unconscious aspects of personality (Corey, 2009,p.79). Jung believes that the ultimate goal of human being is to find integration in his personality and he does that by accepting the dark side of his personality rather than suppressing it (Corey, 2009,p.79). He believed that if people pay attention to the messages given by the unconscious mind through the dreams, they will be able to resolve their conflict easily and hence, find integration easily (Corey, 2009,p.79). Individual Psychology Adler (1912) parted with Freud and developed a theory of ‘individual psychology’ which proposed that a person is a ‘whole’ being and hence, cannot be understood if he is divided in different components (Corey, 2009,p.99). All the aspects of a person’s life like professional, cultural, social and personal are related to each other and do not exist separately (Corey, 2009,p.100). In fact, they work in harmony with each other and help a person to attain his selected life goal (Corey, 2009,p.100). Individual psychology believes that a person’s thoughts, feelings and actions are driven by his perceived goals and hence, knowing a person’s goal can help in knowing his personality and behavior pattern (Corey, 2009,p.100). Object Relations theory Melanie Klein was the psychoanalyst who developed a theory of ‘object relations’ during the 1920’s and 1930’s based on her observations of infants and studying the life long influence of the early relations (‘object relations’) with primary caregivers on the life of the human beings (Feltham, 2000, p.9). Infants perceive other people as objects for gratifying their needs rather than individuals who have their own life (Corey, 2009,p. 81). The object relations theory was later modified by Margaret Mahler in the year 1968 (Corey, 2009,p.82). Mahler studied the interaction of a child and with his mother in the first three years of life and concluded that the child’s process of separation from mother takes place gradually after he experiences psychological fusion with her (Corey, 2009,p.82). If this process remains unfinished and if the child experiences difficulty in the state of separation and individuation, then the impact of this deprivation impacts his future relationships (Corey, 2009,p.82). According to St.Clair (2004), person’s development of relationships in the future is nothing but an effort to experience the comfort and connection that he enjoyed with his mother during childhood (Corey, 2009,p.82). It is an attempt to feel reconnected with mother (Corey, 2009,p.82). Hence, according to object relations theory, the psychological development is a process in which a person tries to obtain individual identity by realizing that he is separate and different from others and that other people are individuals and have their own lives (Corey, 2009,p.82). Attachment theory John Bowlby developed the theory of attachment during 1969 and 1982 (Belsky, Rosenberger & Crnic, 1995, p.153). Bowlby (1944, 1958) believed that a person who experiences a major separation from his parents in childhood develops serious emotional and mental disorders (Belsky, Rosenberger & Crnic, 1995, p.153). Bowlby believed that the attachment process affects the human being throughout his life (Simpson & Rholes,1998, p.3). Later on, the attachment theory was modified by different theorists. According to Hazan and Shaver (1987), on experiencing separation from its parents, an infant goes through three emotional reactions of protest, despair and detachment (“Attachment Theory”,n.d., para 4). According to Lamb et al (1984) The fundamental assumption of attachment theory is that the infants who get a sensitive and warm response from parents develop a secure attachment style, while infants whose emotional needs are ignored develop insecure attachment style (“Attachment Theory”,n.d., para 5). These attachment styles in childhood impacts the attachment styles of the relationships which are developed in the adulthood (“Attachment Theory”,n.d., para 6). References “Attachment Theory”. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.personalityresearch.org/attachment.html Belsky, J., Rosenberger, K & Crnic, K. (1995). The Origins of Attachment Security: “Classical” and Contextual Determinants. In S.Goldberg, R.Muir & J.Kerr (Eds.). Attachment Theory: Social, Developmental and Clinical Perspectives. New Jersey: The Analytic Press, Inc. Cavanaugh, J.C. & Blanchard-Fields, F. (2006). Adult Development and Aging. CA: Thomson Wadsworth Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. CA: Thomson Brooks/ Cole Dryden, W. & Mytton, J (1999). Four Approaches to Counselling and Psychotherapy. London: Routledge Feltham, C. (2000). An Introduction to Counselling and Psychotherapy. In S. Palmer (Ed.) Introduction to Counselling and Psychotherapy: The Essential Guide. London: Sage Publication. Sigelman, C.K. & Rider, E.A. (2006). Life-span Human Development. CA: Thomson Wadsworth Simpson, J.A. & Rholes,W.S (Eds.) (1998). Attachment Theory and Close Relationships. New York: The Guilford Press. “What is psychodynamic counselling?” (2006). Retrieved from http://www.le.ac.uk/ad/counselling/psychodynamic.html Read More