Abstract
The term dynamic generally refers to the psychology grounded on and informed by psychoanalysis—even if dynamic perspectives do not necessarily coincide with it. It is well known that in Freudian theory, the dynamic level of analysis is that focused on conflicts and their role in shaping psychological facts. Yet contemporary psychoanalytically oriented psychology gives a broader meaning to the label, and consequently dynamic psychology is the psychology concerning the affective source (motivation, instinct, intra-psychic, and/or interpersonal conflicts) shaping (inter)subjectivity. Thus, in contemporary psychology the term psychodynamic can be seen as a synecdoche where the whole—the psychoanalytically oriented psychology—is referred to by means of the part—the dynamic level of analysis as conceptualized by Freud. Here we assume this broad definition. Therefore, henceforth the term psychodynamic will be used as being synonymous with psychoanalytically oriented psychological theory.
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Notes
- 1.
If one assumes, as we do, a non realistic epistemology, it would be more coherent to say that from a theoretical point of view a phenomenon can be denoted as “dynamic” insofar as its manifestations are suited to being depicted accordingly to a model of functioning of such phenomenon having some given defining characteristics. An assertion like this reflects the general epistemological a-ontological assumption according to which any theoretical attribute should not be considered as a description of an intrinsic, essential property of the phenomenon, but rather as an observer’s category usable as a semiotic device in order to encounter the observed (Maturana & Varela, 1980). However, having made this specification here, in order to avoid to weighing down the exposition, we will take it as being valid for the following pages.
- 2.
Obviously, not every psychodynamic theorist shares such a (broadly speaking) developmental look. Psychoanalysis is far from being an unitary domain: As Wallerstein (1998) states, there are many psychoanalyses, not one. Therefore, it should not be surprising to recognize that to some extent a mechanistic point of view is still represented in the psychoanalytic field. It would not be hard to give an example of a psychodynamic theory that sees the phenomenon investigated as an epiphenomenon of an underlying a temporal mechanism.
- 3.
DS specify the properties of the transition function of a dynamic system. Here we will try to rephrase the properties in a less formal way. Consistency implies the existence of a well defined state of the system at all time values and for all admitted input functions; compositionality implies that evolution in time can be described ‘step by step’, taking the state reached at a given time point as starting condition for subsequent computations; causality, implies that if two dynamic systems with identical transition function but starting their evolution from two different initial conditions and different inputs, are found to be in the same state at a given time point, and if they receive the same input thereafter, they will have the same evolution in time, irrespective of the differences due to the initial conditions and previous evolution.
- 4.
In general terms a first order dependence is expressed in the form of a polynomial having variables with low power = 1, i.e., y = ax + b. The typical feature of a linear dependence is that the correspondence between a given increment of the independent variable, Dx, and the corresponding increment of the dependent variable, Dy, is given by a constant, and therefore is not dependent on x.
- 5.
The typical feature of a non-linear dependence on time is that the correspondence between a given increment of the independent variable, DX, and the corresponding increment of the dependent variable, Dt, is not constant. In our example, consider the case of an exponential growth of the density of a bacterial colony in vitro, described by the transition function \(X(t) = X_0 \,\exp (t)\). In this case the population density roughly triples at each time step, with a DX that becomes larger and larger as time elapses.
- 6.
This is indeed a second order linear system as it is the second derivative of the displacement from the rest position \(d^2 x(t)/dt^2 \) that is linearly dependent on x(t), as the equation reads: \(d^2 x(t)/dt^2=- \left( {k/m} \right)x\left( t \right)\).
- 7.
“Chaos theory’s image of patterned complexity offers a far better picture theory (…) to guide our research efforts than does experimental design’s billiard ball determinism image of direct and linear causality. An alternative to experimental studies in psychotherapy is a research approach which recognizes the complexity of the psychotherapeutic process and attempts to analyze the complex unfolding of moment by moment performance of people in specific states and contexts” (Greenberg, 1991, p. 8).
- 8.
Details are described in Salvatore, Tebaldi, and Potì (2009), the study from which the investigation in question is a further development.
- 9.
Firstly, the factorial matrix were segmented according to the 14 blocks of sessions. Secondly, each submatrix was subjected to a factorial analysis. In this way 14 second order factorial matrixes were obtained. Each of them had the first order factorial dimension as a row and the second order factors as a column. This means that the second order factors can be interpreted as the association between first order factors. Finally, each row-vector depicting a given first factorial dimension was transformed into a single value, through the computation of the Euclidean distance of the corresponding point on the phase space defined by the second order factors.
- 10.
A first block corresponds to the initial phase of the psychotherapy (sessions 1–3), a second block corresponds to an early phase (session 13–15), then a middle block (sessions 60–62) and an almost final block (sessions 110–112).
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Acknowledgement
We wish to thank the participants in the session of the Clark University’s Kitchen Seminar (10 September, 2008) devoted to the discussion of a first draft of this text. The discussion that developed there provided meaningful feedback, helping us to bring the implications of our proposal into focus.
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Lauro-Grotto, R., Salvatore, S., Gennaro, A., Gelo, O. (2009). The Unbearable Dynamicity of Psychological Processes: Highlights of the Psychodynamic Theories. In: Valsiner, J., Molenaar, P., Lyra, M., Chaudhary, N. (eds) Dynamic Process Methodology in the Social and Developmental Sciences. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-95922-1_1
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