PSYCHOANALYTIC

APPROACHES
Sigmund Freud
 VIEW ON HUMAN NATURE
• Psychoanalysis – refers to a treatment method conceived by Freud for the
alleviation of emotional problems.
• People are driven by motives and emotional conflicts of which they are
largely unaware and that they are shaped by their earliest experiences in
the family
• Unconscious motivation – the power of instincts and other inner forces to
influence our behavior without our awareness.
 VIEW ON HUMAN NATURE
• Instincts – inborn biological drives (such as hunger, thirst, sex, aggression, and
elimination) that bridge the gap between bod and mind.
• 2 Instincts
• Eros – Libido or the life instinct
- Destructive instinct – aggression or Thanatos (death instinct)
 STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
• Id - the impulsive, irrational, and selfish part of the personality whose mission is
to satisfy the instincts.
• Ego – the rational side of the individual that tries to find realistic ways of
gratifying the instincts.
• Superego - the individual’s internalized moral standards.
 TOPOGRAPHIC MODEL
• Topographic Model – a multilayered “geography” of the mind.
• Conscious – is the part of your mind that is immediately aware of your
surroundings and your thoughts at any given moment, and is experienced
by you as your own private “stream of consciousness”.
• Unconscious – the largest part of your mind, containing repressed impulses,
emotional conflicts, or painful memories that you want to keep out of
awareness
 TOPOGRAPHIC MODEL
• Preconscious – is a kind of “twilight zone” where, at any given moment, you
are not thinking about something, but you easily could; these are not
thoughts, emotions, or actions that you try to keep out of awareness, but
many have simply become “automatic,” such as brushing your teeth or
steering your automobile.
• Easily becomes conscious
 WAY TO ACCESS UNCONSCIOUS
• Dreams
• Slips of the tongue and forgetting
• Posthypnotic suggestion
• Free-association
• Projective techniques
• Symbolic content of psychotic symptoms
 ANXIETY
• Anxiety - is a feeling of dread that results from repressed feelings, memories,
desires, and experience that emerge to the surface of awareness.
• Reality anxiety - the fear of danger from the external world, and the level of
such anxiety is proportionate to the degree of real threat.
• Neurotic anxiety - the fear that the instincts will get out of hand and cause
one to do something for which one will be punished.
• Moral Anxiety - the fear of one’s own conscience.
 THERAPEUTIC GOALS
• Make the unconscious conscious
• Strengthen the ego
 THERAPEUTIC PROCESS
• Childhood experiences are reconstructed
• Childhood experiences are discussed
• Childhood experiences are interpreted
• And, analyzed
 CHANGE PROCESS
• Analysis of Dreams
• Transference
• Resistance
• Free association
• Countertransference
 ANALYSIS OF DREAMS
• Wish fulfillment
• Unconscious desires
• Conflicts
 TRANSFERENCE
• Transference - refers to the transfer of feelings originally experienced in an
early relationship to other important people in a person’s present
environment
• the client transfers unconscious feelings onto the counselor.
 ANALYSIS OF RESISTANCE
• Resistance - an instinctual reaction to uncomfortable situations in which the
client attempts to keep hidden from himself or herself and the counselor.
• A way of avoiding the expression of feelings, fantasies, and drives that the
client’s subconscious has learned over time to repress and defend.
 FREE ASSOCIATION
• Psychoanalytic clients are invited to relate whatever comes into their minds
during the session without self-censorship.
• The counselor uses clarification and confrontation to help the client analyze
unconscious or latent content in dreams, fantasies, or enactments that
appear in the expressed content
 COUNTERTRANSFERENCE
• Countertransference – a therapist respond in irrational ways, inappropriate
affect, or when they lose their objectivity in a relationship because their own
conflicts are triggered.
• it is the therapist’s total emotional response to a client.
PRACTICE

• CLIENT: you know, Dora didn’t do
anything bad or anything wrong
against me. It’s just that I don’t like
her, and if she’s around, I cannot do
well in class.
IF THE CLIENT SAYS…
• what would you like to achieve
after our conversation?
• Can you describe Dora the way you
see her?
• What was your past experiences
with Dora?
• Do you know someone who is like
Dora?
 CAN YOU DESCRIBE DORA THE
WAY YOU SEE HER?
• CLIENT: yes, she’s beautiful with • What made you hate these
straight long blonde hair. She carries characteristics?
a purse with a bullet key chain on it. • Does the tattoo has meaning to
She has a rose tattoo on her left you?
chest which most of the time reveal
since most of her dresses would • Do you know someone who is
reveal her cleavage. blonde hair?
• What experiences did you have
from anyone who have these
characteristics?
 WHAT EXPERIENCES DID YOU HAVE
FROM ANYONE WHO HAVE THESE
CHARACTERISTICS?
• CLIENT: I cannot really remember • What comes into your mind when
who and what happened. It’s just you see these things?
that I hate her for having these • How are you going to avoid these
characteristics. characteristics?
• What do you want Dora should do
for you to like her?
• What did you do to overcome this
hate with Dora?