Abstract: Psychodynamic theories of the unconscious emerged from the depth psychologies of the late nineteenth century, when observations and experiments on dissociated states of consciousness showed how unconscious ideas created and removed symptoms. In his proposal that mental life resulted from conflict among conscious and unconscious forces, Freud's original theory, which had been much the same as other depth psychologies, was transformed into the first psychodynamic psychology. Central to his concepts was a sexual instinctual drive forcefully demanding expression, located in a system Freud called the unconscious mind, but which was opposed by a repressing force in a conscious system. Problems with the evidentiary base and logical structure of this topographic theory were complicated by Freud's idiosyncratic theoretical preferences. The same holds for his theory of the structures or agencies of id, ego, and superego that supplanted it. As in the theories of Adler and Jung, as well as the many modern psychodynamic theories that derive from Freud's, most of the problems result from the postulate of a central driving force, all of which require non-rule-governed interpretations and constructions for validation. Some of the consequences of choosing among psychodynamic theories and recasting them into other frameworks are explored.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 2
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