Psychoanalysis & Psychodynamic Psychology

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Freud tended to be inflexible about his theory. Consequently, when some of his followers felt compelled to breakaway from Freud and develop their own versions of unconscious dynamics, they could no longer employ the term psychoanalysis Thus, Carl Jung came up with analytical psychology and Alfred Adler with individual psychology as just two examples. Now, the umbrella term “psychodynamic” encompasses not only the parent theory of Freud’s psychoanalysis, but all the offshoots of psychoanalysis as well. It maybe important to keep in mind that psychoanalysis is widely misunderstood, both by the lay public and even by some professionals in the field. Perhaps the most common misunderstanding is that psychoanalysis began and ended with
Freud—that is, as a historical, not a current, discipline. In fact, contemporary psychoanalysis/psychodynamic psychology is alive and well in theory and practice. Psychoanalysis is actually experiencing something of a renaissance as a therapy (partly as a backlash against quick fix therapies and medications, as a theory (since cognitive psychology and neuroscience have recently rediscovered the unconscious, and as an interpretive tool (in other social sciences. As a result, this lesson plan attempts to cover psychoanalysis both as a historical subject and as an important current theory and practice within modern psychology.
This lesson plan is designed to give you, the teacher, sufficient background to pick and choose which parts of this unit you want to teach. Certainly not all of it can be covered in atypical introductory course there is just not enough time in anyone class or longer unit to go into the detail presented here. Teachers should note that previously produced TOPSS unit lesson plans—Treatment
of Psychological Disorders, States of Consciousness, Motivation and
Emotion, Abnormal Behavior, and Personality—also include some material on psychoanalysis/psychodynamic theory. Teachers are encouraged to use this unit plan to supplement the materials in these other units.
This unit lesson plan was developed as a modular lesson plan for high school psychology teachers. The information provided in this unit can be used as a complete unit on psychodynamic theory, but it has been created so that teachers can use each lesson separately during a psychology course. Lesson I provides an overview of Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalytic Theory. Lesson II covers Psychodynamic Perspectives on Development and Personality. Lesson III, Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Dreams, can also be used while teaching states of consciousness to students. The fourth lesson focuses on
Psychodynamic Theories of Motivation and Emotion. Lesson V, Psychodynamic Perspectives on Mental Disorders and Treatment, can also be used to supplement other TOPSS materials on abnormal psychology and treatment of psychological disorders. Lesson VI provides teachers with information on Neo-
Freudians and Contemporary Psychodynamic theories.
Note.
The authors thank Joanne Callan, PhD, of the Alliant International University, San Diego, CA, for her review of this unit Ludy Benjamin, Jr, PhD, of Texas AM University, College Station, TX, for granting permission for the use of several of the activities and the discussion questions included in this unit and Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association (APA) as well as the Education Initiative of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) for their support and review of this unit.

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