Psychoanalytic Techniques in Therapy

THE PSYCHOANALYTIC TECHNIQUE M. A. Fourth Semester Psycho-diagnostics and therapeutics DHANANJAY KUMAR PROFESSOR DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS OF PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH Psychological problems are rooted in the unconscious mind. Manifest symptoms are caused by latent(hidden) disturbances. Typical causes include unresolved issues during development or repressed trauma Treatment focuses on bringing the repressed consciousness, where the client can deal with it.

BASIC ELEMENTS OF PSYCHOANALYTIC THERAPY FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES : Determinism : Mental events are not random, haphazard, accidental, unrelated phenomena. They are causal chain of events. i. Topography : All mental elements are judged according to the accessibility to consciousness. ii. iii. Dynamic viewpoint : The interaction of libidinal & aggressive impulses is biologically rooted. iv. Genetic viewpoint : Psychoanalysts have linked conflicts, character traits, neurotic symptoms, and psychological structures to childhood events, wishes, and fantasies.

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS Clinical evidence for postulating the unconscious includes the following: 1. Dreams, which are symbolic representations of unconscious needs, wishes, and conflicts. 2. Slips of the tongue and forgetting ,e.g., a familiar name. 3. Posthypnotic suggestions. 4. Material derived from free- association techniques. 5. Material derived from projective techniques. 6. The symbolic content of psychotic symptoms. For Freud, consciousness is the thin slice of the total mind. The unconscious stores all experiences, memories, and repressed material. Needs and motivations - that is, out of awareness are also outside the sphere of conscious control.

Free association Patients express his every thought, feeling or impulse Thought contents can include conscious intentions, external stimuli, visceral somatic stimuli and unconscious or repressed ideas Free association serves to reduce conscious control and inhibitions Provide a link from one statement to another Establish a platform for reaching to the materials of unconscious related to conscious verbal material.

Interpretation and construction Analysts tries to infer what the patient has forgotten from what the patient tell him and to reconstruct the patient s past. RECONSTRUCTION refers to the recovery and putting together of whole story of the patient s past. Direct interpretation is an act of translation, putting something into words. Therapist applies the interpretive skills to the patient s dream, his free association, symptom and symptomatic acts, behavior within the session, his relation with the analysts, and his relation with others.

CONTIN. INTERPRETATION- Attempts to provide the patient with the meaning of material revealed in free-association, reports of dreams, slips of the tongue, symptoms and transference. The function of interpretations: Enable the ego to assimilate new material. To speed up the process of uncovering further unconscious material. Interpretations includes identifying, clarifying, and translating the client s material. Timing of interpretation is important, premature interpretations meet with resistance. It should always start from the surface and go only deep as the client is able to go. Best to point out resistance before interpreting the emotion or conflict that lies beneath it.

CONTINUE. DREAM ANALYSIS- Important procedure for knowing unconscious material & providing the client insight. During sleep, the ego reduces its repression , and unconscious material becomes conscious in disguise form of dreams. Freud sees dreams as royal road to the unconscious . Dreams represent compromises between the repressed impulses of the id and the defensive operations of ego. Dreams has two level of content: I. Latent content II. Manifest content Latent content consists of hidden, symbolic, and unconscious motives, wishes and fears. The interpretation of dream involves understanding the latent dream content, which are disguised in the process of dreamwork.

CONTI. ANALYSIS OF RESISTANCE- It refers to any idea, attitude, feeling, or action (conscious or unconscious) that fosters the status quo and gets in the way of change. It include a number of behaviors in part of patient: Omitting thoughts in free association because of shame or distress. Claiming that association lacks importance. Having no thoughts to express. Arriving late for appointments/ forgetting appointments. Trying to win the love of analyst. Engaging in a battle with the analyst..etc. Resistance blocks threatening material from entering awareness. Analytic therapists point out it, and clients must confronts if they hope to deal with conflicts realistically.

CONTIN.. ANALYSIS OF TRANSFERENCE- An aspect of the repetition compulsion. Repetition of earlier life situations in relation to the therapist. Attitudes toward the parents during the Oedipus stage are transferred to the therapist. Female patients try to win the love of a male analyst, while male patients become competitive with the analyst. POSITIVE TRANSFERENCE- Therapy begins with the patient having friendly feelings, love & affection for the therapist. NEGATIVE TRANSFERENCE- Therapy proceeds, negative, hostile feeling develops. COUNTER TRANSFERENCE- In this the analyst transfers elements from his or her past unconscious or unresolved emotional conflicts or needs to the analytic situation. It is avoided by the analyst refusing to become personally involved with the patient.

CLINICAL APPLICATION OF PSYCHOANALYTIC THERAPY The major aim of this therapy is to help clients to bring about major change in their whole perspective of life. it assist clients in terms of to deal with their own id impulse, to recognize the origin of their current anxiety in childhood relationships. Depression may be treated with a psychoanalytic approach to some extent. It involves encouraging the client to recall that early experience & untangle the fixations that have build up around.

Consulted books Goldenberg, H.(1982). Contemporary Clinical Psychology, Brooks/Cole pub. Co. Korchin, j. (1979). Modern Clinical Psychology. New York: Harper Collins Nietzel, Michael T., Bernstein, Douglas A., Kramer, Geoffrey P., & Milich, Richard (2003). Introduction to Clinical Psychology, (6thed.), Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Wolman, B.B.(1984) Handbook of Clinical Psychology, New York: Wiley & Sons.