Psychodynamic

What does psychodynamic mean?

Psychodynamic approaches examine recurring emotional and relationship patterns, defenses and experiences that may operate partly outside awareness. Contemporary therapies in this family differ from one another and from Freud's original theories.

Examples of historical psychodynamic theories

• Freud's account emphasized unconscious conflict and psychosexual development.
• Jung's analytical psychology introduced ideas such as archetypes and the collective unconscious.
• Object relations theories focused on internal representations of relationships.
• Bowlby and Ainsworth’s attachment work also examines early caregiver relationships.

Evidence for psychodynamic therapy

A 2023 systematic umbrella review describes these shared treatment features and finds evidence of benefit for studied adult depressive, anxiety, personality and somatic symptom disorders. It also identifies limits, including some small or older trials and differences in evidence quality across outcomes.

Criticisms and limits

Treatment benefit does not prove every proposed unconscious mechanism or historical developmental theory. Claims about a particular treatment require evidence for that treatment, population and outcome. When assessing an explanation, ask whether it can be tested, whether it considers later experiences as well as childhood, and whether the interpretation fits the person’s cultural and social context.