ABSTRACT
The theoretical ideas that underlie psychodynamic therapies can be traced to Sigmund Freud and the circle of people surrounding him at the beginning of the twentieth century. Freud’s early theory highlighted the role of sexual and aggressive instincts in a person’s life and how they could be reconciled with external reality. He developed his ideas at the latter end of the nineteenth century when people sought treatment for conditions classified by psychiatrists and physicians as nervous diseases or “neuroses”. Freud’s reply shows how far he has shifted from being a doctor treating a neurosis. Eric Berne reminds his reader that psychoanalysis is always a long process, “one session a week for about three years is probably the minimum for cure”. Despite a far greater reliance on empirical studies of infant interactions with their carers, much of psychodynamic theory is speculative. The innovations that have been introduced over the years have come mostly from practitioners working outside academic institutions.
