Psychodynamic Counseling Theories - Essay Example

?Running Head: Psychodynamic Counseling Theories Psychodynamic Counseling Theories [Institute’s Psychodynamic Counseling Theories Since many decades, there have been observations of endeavors and efforts of experts (Velicer, pp. 23-29, 2003) and organizations to recognise and scrutinise various aspects of human life, in order to acquire solutions for different problems associated with it. In this regard, one can come across a huge number of theories that indicate attempts of various individuals who worked to propose efficient understanding of human existence, and in such a pool, psychodynamic theories are playing a crucial role in better understanding of human life that has resulted in their significant importance in the field of counseling. In specific, this paper is an attempt that will include endeavors for better understanding of theories that will enable the societies to deal with the human problems effectively. While scrutinizing human life, it is merely impossible to avoid the significance of human mind that stands as the fundamental basis of human existence. Still in midst of huge advancements in the field of information technology, theorists (Kottler, pp. 79-84, 2010) are enjoying great significance due to their attempts to analyze and explain different aspects of mind, the most complex organ. In psychology, ‘psychodynamics refers to the study of different aspects of human mind in terms of their interrelationships with each other’ (Velicer, pp. 31-34, 2003). In psychotherapy, theorists (Mitchell, pp. 51-57, 1996) have been dealing with different areas of human mind while relating them with psychological and mental development of humans. In addition, analysis (Kottler, pp. 79-84, 2010) has indicated that unconsciousness is one of the major areas of human mind that have received greater focus of psychologists and theorists. One of the major examples of such focus is the psychodynamic model of the human mind by Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis who contributed extensively to the field of psychology and psychotherapy by his different theories and propositions. In the area of personality, Sigmund Freud contributed expansively that enabled experts (Jacobs, pp. 20-25, 2004) to understand different factors that play crucial role in the human personality. In this regard, Freud’s contributions have been tremendous in the field of psychotherapy as his findings allowed the experts to progress in the field. Although his theory does not enjoy the same significance today, however, Sigmund Freud will remain as the founder of psychodynamics and psychological scrutiny of the human mind. In particular, the paper will include some of the areas of his work involving unconscious mind, three components of the human mind, etc, as well as works of theorists, such as Donald Winnicott, etc that will help in better understanding of psychodynamic theories of counseling. In particular, to understand mechanism of Freud’s psychodynamic model of the human mind, it is necessary to have an understanding of psychosexual development theory (Jacobs, pp. 36-39, 2004) by Freud that will create a fundamental basis for the analysis. Study of the works has indicated that according to Freud, until the period of adolescent, an individual passes through various stages that determine the healthiness or unhealthy condition of his/her personality, and specifically, Freud’s model of the human mind revolves around the same stages of the human life. In particular, Freud divided the human mind in three parts, id, ego, and the superego (Huffman, pp. 20-39, 2008). In addition, besides identification of these three components, Freud emphasized on the importance of conscious, preconscious, as well as unconscious stages of the mind. Due to lack of technological advancements, Freud was unable to prove his division physically; however, he indicated these divisions as psychological existence of the human mind. Firstly, ‘id’ is the basic constituent of the human mind that works during the birth of an individual, and according to the psychosexual development theory, the component of ‘id’ plays its role during oral stage of the individual. In the case of ‘id’ component, Freud (Huffman, pp. 49-66, 2008) indicated that notion of pleasure seems to influence and affect this part significantly, as during the oral stage and during the existence of ‘id’; a child revolves around and responds to only the principle of pleasure. For instance, during this phase of human life, a child ignores different social and cultural existences around him, and focuses on his own wants, such as hunger, thirst, sleep, etc and expresses them with his cry. According to Freud (Kottler, pp. 63-68, 2010), the child then enters into the anal phase that allows the child to begin his interaction with his limited world that results in the development of second component of the human mind, the ‘ego’. Freud explained that ‘id’ revolved around the notion of pleasure, whereas, the ‘ego’ begins to enable the individual to recognise the reality and social constructs around him. During this phase, a child begins to take things in confusion due to existence of components: id and ego (De Berg, pp. 40-49, 2005). For instance, during the later stage, a child begins to develop sexual desires for his mother in result of functioning of ‘id’. At the same time, he fears punishment of his father that relates with the role of ‘ego’ in a child’s life. During late stage of the human life, the psychodynamic model of Sigmund Freud introduces third component of the human mind, super ago. Freud explained that at the conclusion of phallic stage, the child’s personality begins to recognise ethical and moral aspects of human life, and responds to them similarly. In this regard, according to Sigmund Freud (De Berg, pp. 33-38, 2005), superego is the major component that enables an individual to own or disown ethical values of a society. Further scrutiny has indicated that Freud has used the term ‘superego’, whereas, other experts have identified such component as conscience that performs the same tasks and fulfills the same responsibility throughout the human life. Besides the three psychological components of the human mind, analysis of the literature (Corey, pp. 99-111, 2009) has indicated that a number of psychologists and theorists including Sigmund Freud have indicated different levels of the human mind; consciousness, preconscious level, and the unconscious level. In specific, it is an understanding that all experiences of the human personality revolves around and happens at the conscious level of mind that takes only a very small fraction of the human mind. In the result, due to lack of space, conscious level does not keep everything with itself, and subsequently, the rest or the less important float away to the other two levels. While analysing different works of psychologists and theorists, it is an observation that unconscious level seems to enjoy greater significance due to various reasons, mainly of its vague existence. In addition, theorists have identified unconscious level of the human mind as an outcome of repression of conscious level in response to painful experiences. On the other hand, few have indicated lack of space of conscious level and a huge space of unconscious level as the major cause of its significance. In this case, Freud put efforts to distinguish repression from sublimation, and indicated existence of unconsciousness as a backup resource that takes in everything the consciousness does not seem to accept (Ahles, pp. 31-39, 2004). Moreover, Freud emphasised the role of unconsciousness as a bridge between childhood experiences and decisions of adulthood. In this way, Sigmund Freud played a pivotal role in arranging detailed and critical understanding of different aspects of the human mind. Besides Freud, Melanie Klein (Segal, pp. 20-56, 2004) and Donald Winnicott are other names that come to the mind when it comes to psychodynamics, as their Object Relations Theory (Surhone, pp. 19-36, 2010) has been playing the role of a different version of it, and thus, the paper will now include a brief discussion of the same. In specific, relationships play a major role in the object relations theory, as according to it, relations are the foremost and most important causes of development of human psychological life. In other words, interaction with individuals enables humans to create their own personalities that are nothing but a response or reaction to the interactions. In this regard, the major similarity between Freud’s model and perspective of an object relations theorist (Surhone, pp. 40-57, 2010) is of recognition of physical and psychological birth of the humans. According to object relations theory, interactions with society and thus, individuals are as important for development of individual personality as food is imperative for the survival of physical existence of the humans. Object relations theory (Surhone, pp. 69-87, 2010) indicates that physical birth is only a process of few minutes or hours, whereas, psychological birth continues to extend itself over a period of three years; however, only in presence of social relations whose absence can result in an adverse or under-developed personality. In addition, OR theory specifies that nature of object relations determines the quality of physical skills of an individual as well. Although this remains only at the theoretical level, however, experts have observed enhanced linguistic skills in individuals who were able to have quality object relations during the first three years of their life, indicating the appropriateness of OR theory. Furthermore, object relations theory (Surhone, pp. 66-75, 2010) has identified few characterizations that occur during the first three years of life. In particular, one can observe setting up of a personal relationship with the mother by the child, and conclusion of this 3-year period by suspension of the same relationship in the form of individualisation that points towards the development of ego component that exists in the Freud’s model. In conclusion, the paper included discussion on different psychodynamic concepts and theories that have been playing a critical role in the field of counseling. References Ahles, Scott R. 2004. Our Inner World. Baltimore; JHU Press. Corey, Gerald. 2009. Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Cengage Learning. De Berg, Henk. 2005. Freud’s Theory and its Use in Literary and Culture Studies. Rochester; Boydell & Brewer. Huffman, K. 2008. Living Psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Jacobs, Michael. 2004. Psychodynamic Counseling in Action. Sage Publications. Kottler, Jeffrey A. 2010. Theory in Counseling and Therapy. Sage Publications. Mitchell, Stephen A. 1996. Freud and Beyond. London; BasicBooks. Segal, Julia. 2004. Melanie Klein. Sage Publications. Surhone, Lambert M. 2010. Object Relations Theory. VDM Verlag. Velicer, Wayne F. 2003. Handbook of Psychology. John Wiley and Sons. Read More