Counselling Methods Lesson 2 (Psychoanalytic Therapy)

Psychoanalytic Therapy

1. Overview of Psychoanalytic Therapy
  • Originated by Sigmund Freud, it has influenced modern psychology significantly.
  • Focuses on the unconscious mind and aims to bring unconscious thoughts and feelings to consciousness.
  • It employs techniques such as free association and dream analysis to understand the patient's psyche and underlying issues.
2. Founder
  • Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
  • The first-born of a family with three boys and five girls.
  • A medical doctor who suffered from cancer of the jaw, undergoing 33 surgeries.
  • Originator of psychoanalysis, influencing contemporary psychological practices.
3. Key Concepts
3.1 View of Human Nature
  • Deterministic View: Freud believed behavior is determined by irrational forces and unconscious motivations.
  • Key psychosexual stages in the first 6 years of life shape personality.
  • Forces:
  • Libido: Sexual energy; later termed life instincts.
  • Thanatos: The death drive, explaining aggressive impulses.
3.2 Structure of Personality
  • Id:
  • Original, instinctive part of personality, driven by pleasure.
  • Works on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification.
  • Ego:
  • Regulates behavior in accordance with reality.
  • Operates on the reality principle, mediating between id and the external world.
  • Superego:
  • Represents morality and strives for perfection, inhibiting id impulses.
4. Consciousness and the Unconscious
  • Conscious: The immediate thoughts available to awareness.
  • Unconscious: The deeper level, containing repressed memories and desires.
  • Most psychological activity occurs here, influencing behavior.
  • Therapy aims to make unconscious motivations conscious to facilitate change.
5. Anxiety Types
  1. Reality Anxiety: Fear of real dangers in the external world.
  2. Neurotic Anxiety: Fear of punishment for impulses.
  3. Moral Anxiety: Fear due to transgressions of one's moral standards.
6. Ego-Defense Mechanisms
  • Help individuals cope with stress and prevent ego overwhelm. They distort or deny reality and function at an unconscious level. Examples include:
  • Repression: Preventing unacceptable thoughts from entering consciousness.
  • Denial: Refusal to accept reality or facts.
  • Projection: Attributing one’s own unacceptable feelings to others.
  • Displacement: Redirecting emotional reactions to safer targets.
  • Rationalization: Providing excuses for unacceptable behaviors.
  • Sublimation: Transforming unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable actions.
  • Regression: Returning to behaviors typical of earlier developmental stages.
7. Psychosexual Stages
  • Oral Stage (Birth - 2 yrs): Pleasure focuses on mouths, such as sucking and biting.
  • Anal Stage (2 - 4 yrs): Pleasure centers on control of bowel movements.
  • Phallic Stage (3 - 5 yrs): Pleasure involves the sex organs; children navigate sexual feelings toward parents.
  • Latency Stage (6 - 12 yrs): Focus shifts to peer activities and cognitive mastery.
  • Genital Stage (12 yrs onward): Mature sexual relationships develop if previous stages were resolved successfully.
8. Functions and Roles of Psychoanalytic Therapy
  • Therapist maintains a neutral stance, facilitating the client's exploration of thoughts.
  • Involves listening, interpreting, and guiding clients toward insights about their behaviors.
9. Techniques of Psychoanalytic Therapy
  • Free Association: Clients speak freely to bring unconscious thoughts to consciousness.
  • Dream Analysis: Interpretation of dream content to uncover deeper meanings.
  • Transference: Client projects feelings onto therapist, revealing feelings about significant past figures.
  • Resistance Analysis: Identifies and interprets stalls in progress during therapy.
  • Interpretation: Helps clients understand meanings behind personal experiences.
10. Therapeutic Goals
  • Bring unconscious thoughts to consciousness.
  • Strengthen ego to align behavior more with reality than irrational instincts.
11. Contributions to Therapy
  • Generated significant discourse and exploration in therapy practices.
  • Considered unconscious processes for behavior and the impact of early childhood trauma.
12. Limitations
  • Therapist's neutrality can be seen as overly restrictive.
  • Long duration of therapy required for effectiveness.
  • Limited applicability to diverse cultural contexts, which may benefit from more structured approaches.
13. Discussion Points
  • Explore how issues of therapist anonymity can be addressed in therapeutic contexts.
  • Consider cultural differences impacting the reception of psychoanalytic methods.