In the field of psychotherapy science, psychodynamics applies theories that have developed more complex models of subjectivity and the mind since the second half of the 18th century. Hence, the conscious unity of subjectivity or mind is abandoned in favour of models that consist of conscious and unconscious parts, which may cooperate but can also come into conflict with each other.
The first and most important dimension in psychodynamics as a science is the investigating of all phenomena that elude consciousness. The second is that of treatment, of psychoanalytic therapy, which follows the research. The third is that of a general psychology or theory of the mind or theory of mental processes. The results of the traditional clinical as well as empirical and experimental psychoanalytic research contribute to an increasing expansion of the boundaries of the three dimensions mentioned above: method of investigation, therapy and theory of the mind.
Contemporary psychodynamic research is devoted to clinical, empirical and scientific-philosophical investigations as well as inter- and multidisciplinary approaches. It examines the mode of action and effectiveness of the clinical application of psychodynamic theoretical assumptions, its research methodologies and its clinical treatment techniques as well as the application of the former to non-clinical phenomena or to other scientific disciplines (branches of knowledge)