Psychodynamics - History

History

Psychodynamics was initially developed by Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and Melanie Klein. By the mid-1940s and into the 1950s, the general application of the "psychodynamic theory" had been well established.

In his 1988 book Introduction to Psychodynamics - a New Synthesis, psychiatrist Mardi J. Horowitz states that his own interest and fascination with psychodynamics began during the 1950s, when he heard Ralph Greenson, a popular local psychoanalyst who spoke to the public on topics such as “People who Hate”, speak on the radio at UCLA. In his radio discussion, according to Horowitz, he “vividly described neurotic behavior and unconscious mental processes and linked psychodynamics theory directly to everyday life.”

In the 1950s, American psychiatrist Eric Berne built on Freud's psychodynamic model, particularly that of the "ego states", to develop a psychology of human interactions called transactional analysis which, according to physician James R. Allen, is a "cognitive behavioral approach to treatment and that it is a very effective way of dealing with internal models of self and others as well as other psychodynamic issues." The theory was popularized in the 1964 book Games People Play, a book that sold five million copies, giving way to such catch phrases as “Boy, has he got your number!”.