Psychodynamic Psychiatry

What is Psychodynamic Psychiatry?

 

Psychodynamic refers to a method of treatment based on a model that includes both a conscious and unconscious mind.  Consciousness includes those thoughts, feelings, and images of which we are aware.  The unconscious refers to those aspects of our mind that reside, by definition, outside of our awareness.  There are many theories regarding the structure and purpose of the unconscious.  I have found it most useful to consider the unconscious as simultaneously forged by previous experience and containing an inherent tendency towards healing.  This perspective brings together the theories offered by contemporary psychoanalysis and analytical psychology, thereby attempting to bridge the rift that remains between the legacies of Freud and Jung.