PSY_405_W2_LT_Psychodynamic Personality

Running head : PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES

Psychodynamic Theories and Interpersonal Relationships

Name

University

Professor

Course

Psychodynamic Theories

The Psychodynamic approach is concerned with how important man 's development experiences are in shaping his or her personality traits such as conflicting feelings , interpersonal interactions , sources of motivation , and defense mechanism . It is founded on the premise that human behavior and relationships are defined by conscious and unconscious elements , a combination of external reality and internal drives (Averbuch , n .d

Psychodynamic Personality theorists attribute adult behavior , especially the way

people relate to others , to unresolved childhood conflicts and tendencies . A person 's relationship with another is thus formed by one 's own personal choice to be with the other . Yet , the bond or attraction felt for the other and how he or she interacts in the relationship has already been determined by antecedent events . According to Freud , people are passive creatures (Averbuch , n .d . Instead of being drivers of their own lives , people are just driven by their need to express or repress their desires and fixations

Freud 's Oedipal Conflict explains why people unconsciously get on good terms and grow up to be very similar to their own parents . During childhood , boys and girls fall for their opposite-sex parent but are both unsuccessful and left unable to do anything about their desire . The solution ultimately ends up in their identification with their same sex parent . All the way to their adulthood , people carry on the traits their same-sex parents have and similarly look...