ABSTRACT
Have you ever had the experience of doing something out of character such as taking an instant dislike to a stranger, or forgetting to go to an appointment that was important but which you were secretly dreading? If you have, then the chances are that you were influenced by unconscious mental processes-i.e. wishes, emotions, etc. of which you were not aware. You might for example have disliked the stranger because they reminded you of someone else, or forgotten the appointment because you simply did not want to go. The psychodynamic approach is an approach to psychology which emphasises these unconscious processes. The way in which a psychodynamic psychologist might look at unconscious processes is well-illustrated by the case of Alex, described by Lemma-Wright (1995).
