"The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing."
--Sigmund Freud
PsychoAnalysis
Basic principles:
The overall goal of psychoanalysis as defined by Sigmund Freud is to establish a balance between the id and the superego. There are specific processes of transforming the ego, and building it to the point of being able to handle the hardships of life. This balance is achieved by improving the ego's control over irrational and harmful impulses, strengthening defense mechanisms, and developing healthy/rewarding relationships.
Techniques:
TRANSFERENCE & COUNTERTRANSFERENCE:
Transference involves the process of having the client project characteristics of another person onto the therapist, and responds to them as if they were that person. This process can be very helpful for a counselor who is attempting to access repressed information and encourage personal growth for their client. To successfully utilize transference a counselor must go through a long process that starts with developing the transference and then exploring the repressed material that begins to emerge. Second, the counselor must identify the dysfunctional pattern as it begins to reemerge through the transference. Finally, once the origins of the dysfunction are understood, it can be processed and resolved. This process ultimately aims to bolster the clients ego, and allow them to form healthier relationships with others. Countertransference is defined as the clinician's feelings regarding the client, and was usually avoided in the beginnings of psychoanalysis. Even clinicians are human, and in so being, can have unresolved issues that could lead to countertransference onto the client. Currently, this concept is paid close attention and is used as a tool to help the clinician better understand the client and to facilitate mending emotional experiences. |
EXAMPLE: A clinician has a client project the cold, distant, rejecting attitude of their mother onto them. As the client begins to feel that the transference is real, the counselor can begin to process why the client is having difficulties developing caring relationships with people. As the process moves along, the clinician can work with the client to resolve the feelings of hostility and resentment towards the clients mother, allowing the client to form more caring relationships with the people in their life.
ABREACTION:
This technique is still used in today, in many other treatment approaches other than psychoanalysis. Abreaction usually involves recalling a painful experience or experiences that have been repressed. The goal of this technique is to work through the painful experience and the conflict created by reliving the the memory. Next the clinician works to analyze the experience and the subsequent emotional response, with aims to achieve emotional release from the burden of the painful repressed memory. |
EXAMPLE: A client is having a very difficult time forming intimate relationships with people. She cannot seem to ever get to the point in her relationships where she is able to open up emotionally, or form an intimate bond with her boyfriends. She reports that sex is something that frightens her, and it usually causes any relationship to fall apart. After quite a few sessions, the clinician uncovers repressed memories of molestation from her step-father when she was 9 years old. The clinician guides the client in reliving the memory of this, so that the client can confront the deep-rooted, painful emotions caused by this memory. Over time, the client and clinician are able to process the negative feelings and the client begins to feel more confident in her ability to open up intimately with her current boyfriend and the prospect of sexual interaction does not scare her nearly as much as it once did.
Source:
Seligman, L., & Reichenberg, L. (2014). Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy (4th ed., pp. 40-110). Pearson Publishing.
Seligman, L., & Reichenberg, L. (2014). Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy (4th ed., pp. 40-110). Pearson Publishing.