This video describes psychoanalytic theory, which is a talk therapy modality that was developed by Sigmund Freud. It needs to be differentiated from psychodynamic theory. Psychodynamic theory includes psychoanalytic theory as well as the work that's been done since Sigmund Freud's work Neo-Freudians). Psychodynamic theory of course uses many of the same principles we see in psychoanalytic theory but they're not exactly the same thing. The process of using psychoanalytic theory is referred to as psychoanalysis. Tt has several components to it that are fairly distinct from other therapeutic modalities. The first is the idea of levels of awareness. In psychoanalytic theory there are three levels of awareness: conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The conscious mind contains information that someone's thinking right now. The preconscious mind contains information that is retrievable, but not in conscious awareness. The unconscious mind is the largest and it contains the most information. It contains information about frightening experiences, painful experiences, or drives that are unacceptable. In psychoanalytic theory, all symptoms come from unresolved unconscious conflicts. The next component is the psyche. In psychoanalytic theory, the psyche is divided into three components: id, ego, and superego. The id has two instincts: Eros and the Thanatos. The Eros is the life instinct and the Thanatos is the death instinct. The Eros is focused on survival, so it has components like eating, breathing, and having sex. The Thanatos is focused on self-destruction, so it's the death instinct, and has elements like violence and aggression. Freud believed that the Eros was more powerful in most people than the Thanatos, so generally people would move in a positive direction. The ego is a mediator between the id and the superego. Tt functions on the reality principle. It tries to balance those basic needs with morality. When the ego fails, defense mechanisms are created. The superego, which is the last component of the psyche to develop, contains morality and the rules of society. The next component of psychoanalytic theory is the psychosexual stages, and according to Freud there were five stages of development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.
Defense mechanisms are thought to lower anxiety, but eventually can lead to dysfunction if they are overused. Denial is when someone won't acknowledge something that's true. Sublimation is when undesirable urges are converted into a useful career or a useful hobby. An example of displacement is when an individual is bullied and they develop aggressive feelings toward that bully, but they take out those feelings on someone who is not intimidating. They are displacing that aggression intended for the bully to someone else. Regression is tied in with the psychosexual stages. Regression is when a person moves to an earlier stage of development and they adopt the behaviors that are consistent with that stage. Potentially they would revisit the conflicts with that stage. Fixation the next defense mechanism. It is when somebody gets stuck at a particular stage, so they stay within that conflict that's consistent with that stage and don't move forward. Repression is arguably the most important defense mechanism, because the goal of all defense mechanisms is to accomplish some degree of repression. Repression is when material from the conscious mind or the preconscious mind is moved over into the unconscious mind.
Freud developed a number of techniques for psychoanalytic theory including catharsis, interpretation of dreams, free association, analysis of resistance, and transference. Countertransference is not part of the treatment and it's considered destructive. It is when the therapist projects feelings onto the client. In psychoanalytic theory transference was valuable and was analyzed and countertransference was avoided.