Cyclical Psychodynamics

Cyclical psychodynamics is an approach that examines how people’s thoughts, feelings, desires, perceptions, and so forth (one’s “internal state”) lead to actions in the world that in turn create life circumstances and reactions from people that modify or maintain that internal state. Whereas traditional psychodynamic approaches looked predominantly at one’s internal state as the locus of causation, and early behavior therapists predominantly emphasized external events, this approach views both as crucial in the development of personality. Treatment, therefore, is focused on both and how they tend to feed into each other. [Page 264]Contextual factors, such as the patterns of family interactions, are also viewed as playing a critical role in shaping internal states and overt behavior. When one examines behavior and experience from this broad ...