Freud's psychodynamic theory

             Sigmund Freud believed that people have three levels of awareness, which are the conscious, preconscious, and the unconscious. Freud developed a detailed theory on how our own thoughts and feelings affect our actions. It is known as Freud's Psychodynamic Theory. The words psyche or "mind" and dynamo meaning "power" are derived from the Greek language. He believed that we can infer the existence of the unconscious through slips of the tongue and dreams. Years later this theory is still prevalent in today's psychology.
             Today, many therapists use psychodynamic psychotherapy, which tries to get the patient to bring to the surface their true feelings, so that they can experience them and understand them. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy uses the basic assumption that everyone has an unconscious mind, and that feelings held in the unconscious mind are often too painful to be faced. So people come up with defenses to protect themselves from knowing about these painful feelings. An example of one of these defenses is called denial.
             Psychodynamic therapy assumes that these defenses have gone wrong and are causing more harm than good that is why the person needed to seek help. It tries to unravel them, as once again, it is assumed that once you are aware of what is really going on in your mind the feelings will not be as painful.
             "Psychodynamic theories are attempts to explain a portion of the human condition. Psychodynamic concepts-including the concepts of transference, countertransference, and splitting-rest in the belief that present behavior is influenced by past behavior which may or may not be in the awareness of the participant. All interactions are affected to a lesser or greater degree by past behaviors." (Bonniver, 1992)
             Freud also had developed the idea of psychoanalysis. It is very similar to psychodynamic therapy. In Psychoanalysis, the therapist attempts to get access t...

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