Lesson Notes

Lesson 15.1a  Psychoanalysis/Psychodynamic Therapies: Unlocking the Secrets of the Unconscious

 

This lesson looks at one of the most well-known therapies – psychoanalysis. And, yes it did involve a couch! The therapy originating from Sigmund Freud’s theory believes that our difficulties in life as an adult stem from unresolved conflicts when we were young. If you remember back to when we studied Freud’s theory, you would recall the iceberg and how much of what is in our psyche is unconscious. Well, Freud attempted to bring the unconscious to the conscious so that these conflicts can be dealt with. Once insight was achieved, then the client can find more adaptive behaviour patterns.

 

While psychoanalytic (later revamped into psychodynamic) therapy has been criticised for various reasons, the theory gave psychology the framework for future therapies and introduced us to different therapeutic techniques including:

 

• Free Association: This technique is distinctly Freudian. It would allow the client to express any thoughts and feelings that they are experiencing. Where the client may see comments as being vague and unrelated, the psychotherapist would see them as having hidden meaning.
• Dream Analysis: Freud believed that dreams were the road to the unconscious. Dreams were a way for the unconscious to express unwanted feelings and thoughts. A psychotherapist would look to examine the manifest content and latent content of the dream to reach clarity.
• Resistance: Freud believed the resistance of clients (unwillingness or inability to discuss certain memories or thoughts) was important. By making the client aware of their own resistance, the therapist can help them face their problems and find a way to deal with them.
• Transference: In psychoanalysis, transference is used for the client to relive painful experiences in a safe environment. Transference involves displacing your unconscious feelings and thoughts about someone in your past to your therapist. In other words, if you are having a hard time with your boyfriend or girlfriend, you may begin to transfer those feelings to the therapist (whom you otherwise like).
• Interpretation: Freud was probably the first therapist to interpret all of the information from a client. Through free association, dream analysis, resistance, etc. Freud would give the client his interpretation.

 

 

Lesson 15.1b  Cognitive Therparies: A Focus on Faulty Thoughts and Beliefs

Cognitive Therapy has several aspects in common with psychoanalysis, primarily the belief that a person’s thought processes can negatively affect a person’s functioning. Where the therapies differ is that cognitive therapy believes that once insight is gained into recognizing faulty thought processes, the goal is to cognitively restructure this negative self-talk into more appropriate and realistic thoughts. The two main theorists behind this type of therapy are Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.

Albert Ellis: Albert Ellis is one of the world’s best known cognitive therapists. Still practicing in New York today, Ellis’s approach is known as Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). He believed that much of our distress is caused by irrational beliefs. That if we can just challenge and overcome these belief systems we would function much better. 

A great story about Albert Ellis testing his own theory was when he had the irrational belief that women did not like him. From this irrational belief, Ellis had refused to ask out girls or go on dates. One day he challenged this belief by talking to the first 100 women that passed him in Central Park. Now, there were women who swore at him and others ignored him, but there were a few that stopped and talked…he even got a couple of dates! What this proved to Ellis was that his fear of women was completely irrational.

Aaron Beck: Beck’s therapy is known as Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy. He seeks a more active approach where he not only works with his clients during the therapeutic session, but also provides homework assignments for them to do at home. Beck seeks for the clients to recognize their faulty thoughts and behaviours and then work on how to make them more adaptable. This is a very straight-forward approach that has worked best with Depressed individuals. Beck found that these individuals all experienced similar thinking patterns including: selective perception, overgeneralization, magnification, and all-or-nothing thinking.

Overall, there is a lot of support for the cognitive models, critics generally point out that they ignore the unconscious and minimize the importance of the client’s past.

 

 

Lesson 15.1c  Humanistic Therapies: Blocked Personal Growth

Humanistic Therapy is most associated with one individual – Carl Rogers. For the past 50 years, Rogers’s theories have transformed how the therapeutic relationship between therapist and client. Rogers named his theory “Client-Centered Therapy”, which put the client first. It put the client in charge of the therapeutic process and responsible for discovering their own maladaptive behaviours.

In order to get the client to feel comfortable and capable of exploring their own thoughts and feelings, Rogers believed that the therapist needed to be empathic, provide unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and be able to actively listen. Although you may think that these are obvious qualities that the therapist must have, before Rogers these techniques were not common place within a therapeutic session.

Rogers has received criticism for his theory, mostly because of the lack of empirical evidence. Although many of the techniques used by Rogers are still in use by therapists of all viewpoints, the humanistic approach has become less popular over the years. It has not been until Martin Seligman reintroduced many of Rogers’s ideas in his theory of Positive Psychology, that the humanistic approach has had a revival.

 

 

Lesson 15.1d  Group, Family, and Marital Therapies: Healing Interpersonal Relationships

This lesson looks at three major classifications of insight therapies: Group, Family, and Marital therapy. The primary difference between these theories and the other insight theories is that these therapies involve multiple clients at once. All of these theories have grown in popularity and frequency over the years. Some of the possible reasons are that they are typically cheaper (group therapy), but also given the rise of familial stresses and divorce in our society.