Psycho & Dynamic Therapies

An eclectic approach to depth psychology, psychodynamic therapies are used in family therapies, individual psychotherapy and group psychotherapy as a way of understanding the human psyche. It is considered by some to be similar to psychoanalysis, though it is also seen as less intensive.

It has its routes in the 1800s. In 1874 Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke introduced the ideas in Lectures on Physiology. He was inspired by the likes of thermodynamics and from that theorised that all living organisms were governed by energy conservatism as they are energy systems. His theory was later adopted and added to by Sigmund Freud (who Brücke was supervisor to in his first year as a medical student), then other researchers including Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Melanie Klein and Otto Rank.

The approach has many characteristics and principles including the notion that maladaptive functionality is linked to psychopathology emerging at early age and refers to the notions of inner conflicts related to subconscious reasoning. As a result, the approach is very interested in uncovering a patient’s unconscious psyche.