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Psychodynamics Explanation of OCD

Psychodynamic theories view obsessions and compulsions in OCD as signs of unconscious internal conflicts between forbidden wishes and socially acceptable behavior. According to Freud's theory, OCD results from issues during toilet training in early childhood where a child fixates on the anal stage of development. If toilet training involves harsh punishment or making a child feel dirty, it can lead to aggressive id impulses and a counter-desire to be overly controlling, resulting in an "anally retentive personality" and obsessions/compulsions in the future. However, later studies found no clear link between issues with toilet training and the development of OCD.

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2K views

Psychodynamics Explanation of OCD

Psychodynamic theories view obsessions and compulsions in OCD as signs of unconscious internal conflicts between forbidden wishes and socially acceptable behavior. According to Freud's theory, OCD results from issues during toilet training in early childhood where a child fixates on the anal stage of development. If toilet training involves harsh punishment or making a child feel dirty, it can lead to aggressive id impulses and a counter-desire to be overly controlling, resulting in an "anally retentive personality" and obsessions/compulsions in the future. However, later studies found no clear link between issues with toilet training and the development of OCD.

Uploaded by

Raya Tatum
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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PSYCHODYNAMIC

EXPLANATIONS OF OCD
By raya bidshahri
RECAP
ACTIVITY
Discuss with your partners and
answer the following:
Who was Freud?
What did he believe?
What is the psychodynamic
definition of abnormality?
Yo
IN BRIEF....
Psychodynamic theories of OCD stress that
obsessions and compulsions are signs of
unconscious conict that you might be trying to
suppress, resolve or cope with. These conicts
arise when an unconscious wish !usually related to
a sexual or aggressive urge" is at odds with socially
acceptable behavior.
With OCD the main conflict is between
the id and the ego. The id produces
impulses that provoke anxiety, while
the ego tries to reduce the anxiety by
using defence mechanisms. Id impulses
can take the form of obsessive thoughts
and the ego defence mechanisms take
the form of counterthoughts or
compulsive behaviour.

It has been suggested that when these
conflicts are extremely repulsive or
distressing, you can only deal with
them indirectly by transferring the
conflict to something more manageable
such as hand-washing, checking or
ordering.
BAD TOILET
TRAINING =
OCD
Freud believed that OCD is the result
of fixation at the anal stage of
development, when children are going
through toilet training. Children at
this stage are obtaining their sexual
gratification from bowel movements,
while their parents are trying to teach
them to delay this gratification. If
parents overuse punishment, or are too
harsh when toilet training children
may develop aggressive id impulses and
become messy, aggressive and stubborn.
If parents deal with this by making the child feel shameful
and dirty they will then have a counter-desire to control the
id impulses. The result of this is an anally retentive
personality The obsessions, therefore, come from the desire
to be messy, while the compulsions come from the need to
control this desire
DOES THIS MAKE
SENSE?!!
In your groups, evaluate the theory and write it's
strengths/weaknesses down on your papers
Milby and Weber 1991
Studied Freud's theory and
found no clear link
between potty#training
conicts and people with
OCD in comparison to a
control group.
Other research......
Rachman and Hodgson 1980 Also found no relationship
between 'anal' personality traits and those of OCD. Clinical
studies were found to prove that some people with OCD had
the personality traits, but many do not show these traits, and
many who have them do not go on to have OCD in later life.

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