Handbook of Psychology, Volume 5, Personality and Social Psychology

CHAPTER 5

Psychodynamic Models of Personality

ROBERT F. BORNSTEIN

117

THE CORE ASSUMPTIONS OF PSYCHOANALYSIS 117
Primacy of the Unconscious 118
Psychic Causality 118
Critical Importance of Early Experiences 118
THE EVOLUTION OF PSYCHOANALYSIS: GAZING ACROSS
THREE CENTURIES 119
Classical Psychoanalytic Theory 119
Neo-Analytic Models 122
Object Relations Theory and Self Psychology 123
Contemporary Integrative Models 124
PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSONALITY THEORIES: BRINGING
ORDER TO CHAOS 124
Personality Processes and Dynamics 124

Insight, Awareness, and Coping 125

Normal and Pathological Functioning 127

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY:

RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 127

Testing Psychoanalytic Theories 128

The Researcher-Practitioner Split 128

Freud’s Cognitive Revolution 128

Developmental Issues 129

Psychoanalytic Health Psychology 129

The Opportunities and Challenges of Neuroscience 130

CONCLUSION: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PSYCHODYNAMICS

AND THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF PSYCHOLOGY 130

REFERENCES 130

Freud’s psychoanalysis is like Picasso’s cubism. Controver-
sial from the outset, Picasso’s work enchanted some and
alienated others, but every twentieth-century painter has re-
sponded to it in some way. So it is with Freud’s psychoana-
lytic theory: Some psychologists love it, others hate it, but
almost every psychologist has reacted to it—deliberately or
inadvertently, consciously or unconsciously—in his or her
own work.
Psychoanalysis and cubism are alike in at least one other
respect as well. Both paradigms changed in fundamental ways
our view of the world by pointing out limitations in our habit-
ual manner of thinking and perceiving. Cubism compelled us
to view a given object or situation from multiple perspectives
simultaneously—no single viewpoint can capture the com-
plexity of the scene. Psychoanalysis taught us much the same
thing, but instead of looking outward toward the external
world, psychoanalysis turned our attention inward. In the
process, it altered forever the way we see ourselves.
Evaluating the validity and utility of a theory of personality
is never easy, but it is particularly challenging for a theory as
complex and far-reaching as psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic
theory touches upon virtually every aspect of human mental
life, from motivation and emotion to memory and information
processing. Embedded within this larger model is a theory of
personality, but it is not always obvious where the personality

portion of psychoanalysis begins and other aspects of the

model leave off. Because of this, one cannot assess the psy-

choanalytic theory of personality without examining psycho-

analytic theoryin toto,with all its complexity, intricacy, and

controversy.

This chapter reviews psychodynamic models of personal-

ity and their place in contemporary psychology. The chapter

begins with a brief discussion of the core assumptions of psy-

choanalytic theory, followed by an overview of the evolution

of the theory from Freud’s classical model to today’s integra-

tive psychodynamic frameworks. I then discuss the common

elements in different psychodynamic models and the ways

that these models have grappled with key questions regarding

personality development and dynamics. Finally, I discuss the

place of psychoanalysis within contemporary psychology

and the relationship of psychoanalytic theory to other areas of

the discipline.

THE CORE ASSUMPTIONS OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

Given the complexity of psychoanalytic theory and the myr-

iad incarnations that the model has assumed over the years,

the core assumptions of the psychodynamic framework are

surprisingly simple. Moreover, the three core assumptions of