A PRESENTATION ON PSYCHOANALYTIC THERAPY BY ADU BOAHEN BENARD & NANA AKUA AKUFFO

Psychoanalysis

is the psychotherapeutic application by a trained analysts, of psychoanalytic theory in order to ameliorate disorders that interfere with the analysands satisfactory functioning. This is conducted with frequency and intensity And seek to bring the unconscious mental processes into the analysands awareness where they may be explored and understood.

how did psychoanalysis originate? More than a hundred years ago, the medical founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, abandoned a traditional psychiatric approach. Instead he encouraged his patients to lie down in a relaxed position, on a couch, and to try to say exactly what was passing through their minds from moment to moment. He sat out of sight behind them, so as not to distract them. He kept to a strictly professional setting that was confidential and avoided judgment or blame, with sessions at regular times. What he found was that there were all sorts of unconscious and half-conscious fears and preoccupations behind his patient psychological symptoms. These (especially in the repressive late 19th and early 20th centuries) could be worries and traumas of a sexual nature, which they found shaming and disgusting. Often, anxieties were also to do with hatred and aggression; things that conflicted with the way people wanted to see themselves. This is still very true today.

THE THEORY Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is based on the observation that we sometimes try to deal with problems by trying to keep them out of our mind as a way of getting rid of them. However, they will continue to have an important effect on our feelings and behavior. Early experiences are important in shaping the way the mind works but a large part of our mind operates outside of our consciousness. From an early age, we find ways of managing our experiences and this influences how we cope in later life.

It is through conflicts between the conscious and the unconscious and between the biological motivating forces in people and the social tempering forces in the environment that the personality develops, acculturation occurs, and values are acquired. o Freud described this human motivation as being governed by the tendency to seek pleasure (a biological drive) and to avoid pain. He called this tension-reducing force the pleasure principle.

 Freud

continued to research hypnotism in treatment, but his work and friendship with colleague Josef Breuer led to the development of his most famous therapeutic technique. Breuer described his treatment of a young woman, known in the case history as Anna O., whose symptoms of hysteria were relieved by talking about her traumatic experiences. Freud and Breuer collaborated on a book called Studies on Hysteria and Freud continued to develop his use of this "talk therapy."

 Psychoanalytic

therapists generally spend time listening to patients talk about their lives, which is why this method is often referred to as "talk therapy." The therapy provider will look for patterns or significant events that may play a role in the clients current difficulties. Psychoanalysts believe that childhood events and unconscious feelings, thoughts and motivations play a role in mental illness and maladaptive behaviors.

 The

therapist offers an empathetic and nonjudgmental environment where the client can feel safe in revealing feelings or actions that have led to stress or tension in his or her life

 The

client must feel free to express anything. The therapeutic situation must be a unique social situation, one where the patient do not have to be afraid of social judgment or ostracism. In this therapy, the environment should be physically relaxing couch, dim lights, soundproof walls, and the stage is set.

 Psychoanalysis

is interested in exploration of the unconscious mind in order to cure. In this respect, it applies specific techniques or methods that we intend to present in this section. FREE ASSOCIATION The client talks about anything at all. The theory is that, with relaxation, the unconscious conflict will inevitably drift to the fore.

RESISTANCE When a patient tries to change the topic, falls asleep, comes in late or skips an appointment , the therapist says aha!. These resistance suggest that the client is nearing something in his free association that he unconsciously, finds something threatening.

DREAM ANALYSIS This is the process of explaining the meaning of the way the unconscious thoughts and emotions are processed in the mind during sleep. THE SYMBOLIC METHOD Held that dreams had to be considered in their entirety and therefore unified in their meaning. THE DECODING METHOD Considers events and objects in dreams as symbols, which are translated into broader symbols using a key as a guide.

In sleep we are somewhat less resistant to our unconscious and we will allow a few things in symbolic forms to come to awareness. These wishes from the id provide the therapist with more clues.

 PARAPRAXES
Is

a slip of tongue often called Freudian slip. The therapist is also interested in the jokes of his clients told. Almost everything meant something all the time. Eg dialing a wrong number, making a wrong turn, misspelling a word.

 PROJECTIVE

TEST Such as famous Rorschach or inkblot test. The theory behind this test is that when the stimulus is vague, the client fills it with his own unconscious themes.

 TRANSFERANCE
Occurs

when a client projects feelings towards the therapist that more legitimately belong to certain important others. This brings the repressed emotions that has been plaguing the client for so long to the surface.

 CATHARSIS
Is

a sudden or dramatic outpouring of emotions that occurs when the trauma is resurrected INSIGHT This is being aware of the source of the emotion. The major portion of the therapy is completed when catharsis and insight are experienced

 The

analyst is silent as much as possible in order to encourage patients free association. However, the analyst offers judiciously timed interpretations in the form of verbal comments about the material that emerges in order to uncover the patients resistance to treatment. The interpretation may be either focused on present issues Dynamic or to draw connection between the patients past and the present Genetic.

The therapist offers an empathetic and nonjudgmental environment where the client can feel safe in revealing feelings or actions that have led to stress or tension in his or her life. Oftentimes, simply sharing these burdens with another person can have a beneficial influence. The patient experience a sense of greater fulfillment in their lives from having established a secured base in the relationship with psychoanalyst that allows glitches and faults in development.

 Individuals

who are most suited for this therapy have experience general dissatisfaction with their livessuffering from long standing depression, anxiety, sexual difficulties, physical symptoms without physical basis.

 Costs

are often cited as the biggest disadvantage of psychoanalytic therapy. Many clients are in therapy for years, so the financial and time costs associated with this treatment modality can be very hig. .

 Critics

also point out that the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy can also be questioned. One study found that there was no difference in therapy outcomes between psychoanalytic therapy clients and a placebo group. Other critics including Noam Chomsky and Karl Popper suggest that psychoanalysis lacks scientific basis

 Other

critics claim that psychoanalysis cannot be considered a science due to its lack of predictions. Psychoanalysts, critics maintain, state that certain childhood experiences, such as abuse or molestation, produce certain outcomes or states of neurosis. To take this idea one step further, one should be able to predict that if children experience abuse, for instance, they will become characterized by certain personality traits. (Colby, 1960, p. 55).

 Commer,

R.J (1995) Abnormal psychology (2nd

ed) Freud S. (1916-1917) Introductory lecture on psychoanalysis Salzman L. (1980) treatment of obsessive oersonality.