Psychodynamic Approach To Personality Analysis

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Theory of Personality: Psychodynamic Approach and Personal Perspective Personality can arguably be described as a uniquely human component. Each of us has a unique make-up that allows us to interact with the world around us. Our personalities allow us to create, maintain, and sometimes dissolve relationships with the people around us. Olson and Hergenhahn discuss personality in the context of its Latin translation, persona. The authors further go on to describe personality as a mask that each of us wears when interacting with the world around us (Olson & Hergenhanh, 2011). Personality is opaque allowing for many theorists to come forth with hypotheses regarding origin, flexibility and even importance of personality to the human experience. …show more content…
The following paragraphs will be a platform for which I would like to discuss the psychodynamic approach to personality in conjunction with my own perspective on personality. Growing up the eldest of three set the stage for my high achieving modality and sensitive spirit. I felt a lot of responsibility for my younger siblings and was thrust into a parental-like role for them. My parents were only 19 when I was born. Growing up, my mother would say that her and I were best friends, that she was more than just my mom. My mom has struggled with her mental health for much her life and, more recently, has struggled with substance use. My dad was somewhat disengaged to the family, filling his schedule with travel and work responsibilities. I took an interest in psychology as a teenager because I started to realize that not all families operated the same way mine did. Psychology started to give me answers, or at least a new perspective on people and human …show more content…
Much like Karen Horney and Alfred Adler, I believe there to be a biological determinant to personality but that society, parents and caregivers can play demonstrative roles in shaping and influencing personality (Olson & Hergenhanh, 2011). I believe we all start out dependent on our parents to meet our needs and create secure environments for us to develop in. Horney emphasized two major factors for human development: safety and satisfaction. Safety emphasized more psychological components, freedom from fear and feeling secure, while satisfaction emphasized more physiological components, water, food and sleep. She further hypothesized that when security is undermined, neurotic trends manifest (Olson & Hergenhanh, 2011). These neurotic trends, or needs, can take form in 10 different ways: Need for Affection and Approval, Need for a Partner Who Will Run One’s Life, Need for Power, Need to Exploit Others, Need for Social Recognition and Prestige, Need for Personal Admiration, Need for Ambition and Personal Achievement, Need for Self-Sufficiency and Independence, Need for Perfection and Unassailability (Olson & Hergenhanh, 2011). Unlike Freud, Horney was not convinced that personality was fixed (Leverone, 2017). She believed that people change throughout the human lifespan and that neurosis resulted from an interference in our ability to realize our true selves but that through therapeutic processes
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