ABSTRACT
Clinical scholars describe two fundamental perspectives in historical accounts of the psychoanalytic paradigm: the drive model, based on Sigmund Freud’s classical instinct theory, and the relational model, which centers on the fundamental role of attachment, relationship and social life in human experience. Critiques of psychoanalysis and reformulations of psychodynamic thought have brought about major shifts in theoretical perspectives, empirical research, and therapeutic practice. The growing emphasis on interdisciplinary study, bridging work in science and the humanities, continues to enlarge the scope of understanding. Research findings across the fields of neuroscience and developmental psychology provide strong support for the core propositions of psychodynamic understanding, emphasizing the dynamics of unconscious emotional and cognitive processes and the crucial role of attachment, caregiving, and relational life in the development of the self. In the domain of clinical research, outcome studies continue to document the efficacy and effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy for a range of problems in living. Although relational perspectives have shaped contemporary understanding and practice, the first generation of psychoanalytic thinkers continues to provide crucial points of reference across the broader psychodynamic tradition. In the first of two chapters on the psychodynamic paradigm I examine the depth psychology of Freud and C. G. Jung, outlining the development of their thought and concepts of therapeutic action. In doing so I show how they prefigure recent developments in the science of mind and introduce pragmatic principles of practice.
