Introduction to Counseling - Psychoanalytic Theory

Sigmund Freud

He pioneered techniques for understanding human behavior.

What did Sigmund Freud develop?

Most comprehensive theory of personality and psychotherapy ever developed (Corey, 2013)

Deterministic

largely shaped by unconscious forces and past experiences, especially those from early childhood, and not by free will. (instinctual drives, repressed memories)

Self-gratification

Human behavior is motivated by the desire to reduce tension and gain pleasure. Aim of human behavior according to the View of Human Nature.

Life Instincts

Instincts that promote survival, growth, reproduction, and pleasure. They include hunger, thirst, sex, and love.

Death Instincts

Unconscious drive toward aggression, self-destruction, and a return to an inorganic state (death).

What drives are powerful determinants of why people act as they do?

Both sexual and aggressive drives.

Id

Untamed drives or impulses (pleasure principle) “I want that right now!”

Ego

Mediator (reality principle) “Let`s figure out a way to work together”

Superego

Internalized social component (morality principle) “Good people don't think about those things”

Hallmark of Healthy Functioning

The ego governs over the id and superego.

Dreams

“Royal road to the unconscious” (manifest, latent)

Slips of the tongue

Unintentional errors in speech that reveal hidden thoughts or feelings.

Materials from Free Association

Whatever comes to mind

Materials from Projective Techniques

Inner conflicts, desires, and fears onto ambiguous stimuli.

Clinical Evidence of the Unconscious

Dreams;

Slips of the tongue;

Materials from free association;

Materials from projective techniques.

Where is stock knowledge stored?

Unconscious

What causes anxiety?

Conflict within the structure of personality

How does anxiety act as a warning?

It acts as a warning to the ego that danger is near, either from internal conflicts (id vs. superego) or external threats (real world consequence).

Ego’s Response to Anxiety

It responds by using defense mechanisms (repression, denial, projection and etc.,)

Repression

Unconscious / forceful forgetting.

Denial

Refusal to accept or see a problem

Reaction formation

Expressing the opposite of one’s feelings in an exaggerated way

Projection

Projecting or attributing unacceptable thought reaction, or motive onto another.

Rationalization

Coming with good reasons to explain a bruised ego.

Sublimation

Diverting aggressive energy into socially acceptable channels.

Regression

Return to less mature way of behaving

Introjection

Taking in the values and standards of others.

Identification

Development of role models that people identify or imitate.

Compensation

Making up for limitations.

Displacement

Redirection of a response to less threatening object or person

A male adult unconsciously fears female authorities and has forgotten memories of an abusive mother. What defense mechanism is shown?

Repression

A lawyer’s remarkable debating skills have roots in his argumentative and competitive attitude. What defense mechanism is shown?

Sublimation

Jack avoids acknowledging his wife’s request for annulment by taking a difficult case. What defense mechanism is shown?

Intellectualization

Oral Aggressive Fixation

Argumentative, sarcastic, verbally hostile.

Oral Passive Fixation

Dependency, gullibility, neediness.

Anal Expulsive Fixation

Messy, disorganized, rebellious.

Anal Repulsive Fixation

Perfectionistic, stubborn, overly neat.

What might happen if the male child does not resolve the Oedipus complex?

He would be dependent on the mother.

What are the concepts included under Psychosexual Stages and Fixation?

Oral aggressive;

Oral passive;

Anal expulsive;

Anal repulsive;

Oedipus complex;

Electra complex

Therapeutic Goals

Increase maladaptive functioning through reduction of symptoms and resolution of conflicts;

Make the unconscious, conscious;

Strengthen the ego;

Achieving insight.

Why strengthen the ego?

So that behavior is based more on reality and less on instinctual cravings or irrational guilt.

What is essential in Achieving insight?

The feelings and memories associated with this self-understanding be experienced.

What stance does the therapist assume?

Anonymous, objective stance (blank screen approach) — fosters transference.

What does the psychoanalytic therapist pay attention to?

Both what is spoken and what is unspoken.

Primary Aim of Psychodynamic Approaches

To foster the capacity of clients to solve their own problems.

How does change occur?

Through the process of reworking old patterns so that clients might become freer to act in new ways (Luborsky et al., 2011).

Client`s Experience

Intensive, long-term therapy process.

Free association

Try to say whatever comes to mind without self-censorship (verbal productions are the heart of psychoanalytic therapy.)

When does Psychoanalytic therapy end?

When clients gain insight, resolve key conflicts, reduce defenses, and integrate past experiences into present life.

Classical Analysis

Therapist stands outside the relationship, comments on it, and offers insight-producing interpretations.

Contemporary Relational Psychoanalysis

Focus as much on here-and-now transference as on earlier reenactment (emotional communication with clients as a useful way to gain information and create connection.)

Why is the therapeutic relationship central?

To increasing client self-awareness, self-understanding, and exploration.

Transference

Client’s unconscious shifting to the analyst of feelings, attitudes, and fantasies (both positive and negative).

Working through

Consists of repetitive and elaborate explorations of unconscious material and defenses, most of which originated in early childhood.

Countertransference

Therapist’s unconscious emotional responses to a client

Maintaining the Analytic Framework

Creating a consistent, structured, and neutral therapeutic setting that supports deep exploration by upholding boundaries, regularity, and therapist objectivity.

Free Association as a Therapeutic Technique

Clients are encouraged to say whatever comes to mind, regardless of how painful, silly, trivial, illogical, or irrelevant it may seem.

Interpretation

Analyst’s pointing out, identifying, clarifying, and translating the client’s material.

Dream Analysis

“Royal road to the unconscious”

Analysis and Interpretation of Resistance

Use to defend against the intolerable anxiety and pain that would arise if they were to become aware of their repressed impulses and feelings.

Analysis and Interpretation of Transference

Clients can recognize how they are repeating the same dynamic patterns in their relationships with the therapist.

Therapeutic Techniques & Procedure

Maintaining the Analytic Framework;

Free Association;

Interpretation;

Dream Analysis;

Analysis and Interpretation of Resistance;

Analysis and Interpretation of Transference