What Are the Deficits of Psychodynamic Theory?

Psychodynamic theory attributes a person's outward behavior as unconsciously motivated by their childhood responses to basic human drives. The basis of the theory was outlined by Sigmund Freud and elaborated on by Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and Erik Erikson. Psychodynamic theory marked the birth of the modern science of psychology, however, as with all theories, there are a number of deficits causing many psychologists today to abandon this approach.

Time Consuming

• The psychodynamic approach involves discussing a person's entire childhood history for the purpose of linking traumatic events of the past to present-day conflicts. Sessions often take place once or twice a week and can take years, with the therapist sometimes going down blind alleys due to the subjective nature of the interpretations offered. A research group at the University of Berlin found that the average length of time in psychotherapy was three years. Busy people today often do not have the time to go to therapy more than once a week or for years on end.

Expensive

• Because therapy using the psychodynamic approach takes years to complete, the costs can be astronomical. If your copay is only $20 per session and you go to therapy twice a week for three years, your out-of-pocket cost will be $6,240. Managed care companies in 2011 frequently limit the number of sessions covered per year. Therapies that produce quick, demonstrative results are advocated, as there is no demonstrated scientific efficacy of the psychodynamic approach over any other form of talk therapy.

Assumes an Unconscious

• Psychodynamic theories assume that the unconscious exists. There is no scientific proof that hidden motivations govern personality and behavior. The unconscious cannot be physically measured. The theory of unconscious motivations governing behavior can neither be proved or disproved. Even if psychologists accept the idea of an unconscious as valid, there is no evidence that the unconscious governs all behavior. If a psychologist believes that only certain behaviors are governed by the unconscious, there is no way of identifying what these behaviors are.

Insight Causes Change

• A supposition of psychodynamic theory is that insight into subconscious motivations leads a person to develop new, more adaptive behaviors. Simply knowing and accepting something as fact does not lead to changed behavior; people who learn that smoking causes cancer do not always quit smoking, for instance.

Cannot Be Reproduced

• A scientific theory is able to be replicated. Psychodynamic theory cannot be replicated. It was developed using studies of individual cases -- results cannot be reliably generalized to an entire group of people. Two people can have the same negative childhood experience, for example, although one may be quite conflicted while to the other the event was perceived as neutral. If the theory of psychodynamics was sufficient, it would account for these differences, and it does not.