The Psychodynamic Approach

Psychological Approaches - A Comparison

In this course, Dr Ayoub Bouguettaya (University of Birmingham) explores the five main psychological approaches. In the first lecture, we think about the psychodynamic approach and its famous founder, Sigmund Freud. In the second lecture, we consider the behavioural approach and its overt focus on observable phenomena. In the third lecture, we think about the cognitive approach and its views of human consciousness as abstract. Next, we consider the biological approach and its tight integration with modern medicine. In the fifth lecture, we think about the humanistic approach and its ubiquitous presence in modern therapeutic interventions throughout the Western world. In the sixth and final lecture, we consider how these approaches interact and overlap.

The Psychodynamic Approach

In this lecture, we think about the psychodynamic approach, focusing in particular on: (i) the origin of the approach from Sigmund Freud’s use of hypnosis in his research and therapy; (ii) Freud’s proposed structure of consciousness: the id, ego and superego; (iii) strengths of the approach, including its recognition that not all things are known by the patient and that it provided the basis for talking therapy as we know it today; (iv) weaknesses of the approach, including the inability to empirically test its proposals, as well as the outdated ideas which underpinned many of Freud’s peripheral theories.