Modalities Summary A. Psychoanalytic Therapy/Psychodynamic Therapy “As the originator of psychoanalysis, Freud pioneered new techniques for understanding human behaviour. ” Corey (2009, p. 60) “ Just as experience may lead to symptoms, so psychoanalysis, a verbal form of therapy, may lead to their resolution. ” Monte and Sollod (2003, p. 19) Key Concepts There are three pillars of Psychoanalytical therapy, repress, resist and transference. Psychoanalytical therapy focuses on the unconscious which Freud believed influences human behaviour.
It focuses mainly on the first 6 years of human life (psychosexual stages) and how the events of this period can affect life at a later stage. Repressed conflict in the unconscious can have negative repercussions and be a direct cause of anxiety later in life. To develop a personality a human must go through 5 psychosexual stages; oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital. Inadequate progression through these stages can lead to a flawed personality.
Freud believed the personality consisted of three systems: ‘the id’, which represents the personality at birth and is ruled by pleasure, and remains unconscious. ‘The ego’, being the system that has contact with the real world and controls the blind impulses of ‘the id’, it knows only subjective reality. And the ‘super ego’ which is the “judicial branch of personality”. It has a moral code and persuades the ego to be good rather than bad, strive for perfection and be rewarded with feelings of pride, or guilt.
Corey (2009, pp. 61-67) Therapeutic approach A traditional Psychoanalytical therapist would see a client for many years up to 5 times a week. Freud was not interested in the clients’ current reality, but in their fantasies and dreams. According to Corey (2009, pp. 62-69) Freud believed the ‘unconscious’ stores all memories, experiences and repressed material. Because the unconscious cannot be studied directly, Freud used many techniques to tap into the unconscious and increase awareness.
The 6 basic techniques of psychoanalytical therapy are: maintaining the analytical framework, free association, interpretation, dream analysis, analysis of resistance and analysis of transference. The aim of psychoanalytical therapy is to make the unconscious conscious, so an individual may be in a position to exercise choice and strengthen the ego so that behaviour is based more on reality, rather instinctual cravings and guilt. In summary “Freud thought of himself as an archaeologist of the mind.
He saw his work as reconstructing the hidden unconscious story of a patient’s life from clues and fragments” as an archaeologist would uncover hidden artefacts. Kahn (1997, p31). References for Modalities Summary A. Psychoanalytic Therapy/Psychotherapeutic Therapy Corey, G. (2009) Theory and Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy (8th ed. ). Brooks-Cole: Pacific Grove, CA. Kahn, M. (2007) Between Therapist and Client, The New Relationship. Henty Holt and Company: New York. Monte, F. and Sollod, R. (2003) Beneath the Mask (7th ed. ). John Wiley & Sons: United States of America.
