Analyzing Theories for Psychology/Counseling
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ch_03_psychoanalytic.ppt100315.pptMelinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Chapter Three
Psychoanalytic Theory
Adrianne L. Johnson
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Introduction
- Psychoanalytic theory is based on the concept that individuals are unaware of the many factors that cause their maladaptive behaviors and discomforting emotions.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Introduction
- Psychoanalytic treatment is highly individualized and seeks to show how early childhood experiences have impacted the formative aspects of our personality development.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Introduction
- The techniques and strategies used in this approach are used to illustrate to the client how unconscious thoughts and defenses formed early in life affect behavior patterns, relationships, and overall mental health.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Introduction
- The general goals of psychodynamic counseling are client self-awareness and understanding of the influence of the past on present behavior. and correction of the client's distortion is often the primary focus of therapeutic treatment.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Introduction
- While traditional psychoanalysis has adhered to conventional techniques to achieve counseling goals, the theory has evolved to include multicultural considerations and implications for managed care to enhance the theory’s effectiveness with a greater number of clients.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Background
- Psychoanalytic theory was an enormously influential force during the first half of the twentieth century, and was based on the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939).
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Background
- Throughout Freud’s professional career, his ideas regarding unconscious motivations, psychosexual development, and dynamic insights regarding coping mechanisms dominated psychological explanations of how the human mind works.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Background
- While visiting Paris in 1885 on a traveling fellowship, he began to study physiology as a dynamic system influenced by neurology. Greatly intrigued by this concept, he deserted the exclusive practice of family medicine and instead devoted his life to medical pathology, primarily exploring the potential of hypnosis, free association, and dream analysis as cures for a constellation of unusual symptoms he observed in patients.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Background
- The famed patient ‘Anna O.’ led Freud to popularize the concept of the ‘talking cure,’ or the free flowing catharsis of symptoms and their possible origins.
- Freud suggested that many psychological conditions were found to greatly improve once repressed trauma and their related emotions were expressed using the talking cure.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Background
- During his early 40’s, Freud engaged in his own self-analysis, and channeled his creative energy on processing the meaning of his own dreams. This was a challenging task, and he developed many of his formative theories during this period.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Background
- One such theory was that of personality development. Freud concluded that personality is formed through early childhood experiences, and those experiences are responsible for the individual’s functioning through one’s adult life.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Human Nature
- Psychoanalytic theory suggests that behavior is largely determined by irrational forces, unconscious motivations, and biological, or instinctual, drives.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Human Nature
- Humans are conceptualized largely in terms of biology and maladaptive behaviors are symptomatic of a subconscious response to social interactions which the mind interprets as unsafe, thereby threatening the stability of the human personality structure.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Human Nature
- The mind interprets social interactions within a framework shaped largely by early life experiences and subsequent functioning is dependent upon the humans’ capacity to cope healthfully on a subconscious level.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
The Id, the Ego, and the Superego
- Id: The instinctual and biological drives of the psyche.
- Super-Ego: The critical, moralizing function.
- Ego: The organized, realistic part which mediates and seeks a balance between the former two
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
The Id
- The Id comprises the unorganized part of the personality structure that contains the basic drives and it is the only component of personality that is present from birth. According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
The ID
- The id functions on the pleasure principle, which emphasizes wants and desires and instant self-gratification, and if not satisfied immediately, the result is a state anxiety or tension.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
The SUPEREGO
- The superego, which strives to act in a moral, socially appropriate manner, directly contradicts the id, which demands instant self-gratification. The superego works to suppress the urges of the id and strives for morality, regardless of contextual circumstances.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
The SUPEREGO
- There are two parts to the superego: The first is the ego-ideal, and includes the rules and standards for good behaviors.
- The second part is the conscience, which includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents and society.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
The EGO
- The ego is the largely unconscious part of personality that mediates the demands of the id the superego.
- The ego prevents us from acting on our basic urges (created by the id), but also works to achieve a balance with our moral and idealistic standards (created by the superego).
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
The EGO
- The ego is the component of personality that is responsible for helping an individual cope with reality.
- The ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
The EGO
- The ego functions on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id's desires in realistic and socially appropriate ways.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Psychosexual Development
- Freud believed that personality develops through a series of childhood stages during which the pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous areas.
- Psychosexual energy, or libido, is suggested to be the driving force behind behavior.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Psychosexual Development
- At particular points in the developmental process, a single body part is particularly sensitive to sexual, erotic stimulation. These erogenous zones are the mouth, the anus, and the genital region.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Psychosexual Development
- A child at a given stage of development has certain needs and demands and if these psychosexual stages are completed successfully, the result is a healthy personality.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Psychosexual Development
- However, frustration occurs when these needs are not met and if certain issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage, the individual will become fixated and will remain stuck until this conflict is resolved.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Psychosexual Development
Oral
Anal
Phallic
Latent
Genital
The infant derives pleasure from oral stimulation through gratifying activities such as tasting and sucking.
The primary focus of the libido is on controlling bladder and bowel movements.
The primary focus of the libido is on the genitals.
The libido interests are suppressed.
The individual develops a strong sexual interest in the opposite sex.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Life and Death Instincts
- Freud determined that all instincts fall into one of two major classes: life instincts, or death instincts. Freud believed that these drives, or instincts, were as influential on one’s behavior as were the id, ego, and superego.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Life and Death Instincts
- Life instincts are those that deal with basic survival, pleasure, and reproduction.
- These instincts are important for sustaining the life of the individual as well as the continuation of the species.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Life and Death Instincts
- While they are often called sexual instincts, these drives also include such things as thirst, hunger, and pain avoidance. The energy created by the life instincts is known as the libido.
- Behaviors commonly associated with the life instinct include love, cooperation, and other pro-social actions.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Life and Death Instincts
- In Freud’s view, self-destructive behavior is an expression of the energy created by the death instincts. When this energy is directed inward, it appears as masochism and self-loathing. If directed outward onto others, it is expressed as aggression and violence.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Defense Mechanisms
- Defense mechanisms are a function of the ego, which strives to protect the individual from experiencing anxiety and guilt, provoked by the discord between the id and superego.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Defense Mechanisms
- This coping strategy safeguards the mind against feelings and thoughts that are too difficult for the conscious mind to cope with, such as inappropriate or unwanted thoughts and impulses from entering the conscious mind.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Defense Mechanisms
| Denial | The refusal to accept reality and to act as if a painful event, thought, or feeling did not exist. |
| Repression | The blocking of unacceptable impulses from consciousness. |
| Reaction Formation | The converting of wishes or impulses that are perceived to be dangerous into their opposites. |
| Projection | The attribution of one's undesired impulses onto another. |
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Defense Mechanisms
| Displacement | The redirecting of thoughts feelings and impulses from an object that gives rise to anxiety to a safer, more acceptable one. |
| Rationalization | The cognitive reframing of one’s perceptions to protect the ego in the face of changing realities. |
| Sublimation | The channeling of unacceptable impulses into more acceptable outlets. |
| Regression | The reversion to an earlier stage of development in the face of unacceptable impulses. |
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Defense Mechanisms
| Compensation | A process of psychologically counterbalancing perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strength in other areas. |
| Compartmentalization | A process of separating parts of the self from awareness of other parts and behaving as if one had separate sets of values. |
| Intellectualization | The use of a cognitive approach without the attendant emotions to suppress and attempt to gain mastery over the perceived disorderly and potentially overwhelming impulses. |
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Defense Mechanisms
- An individual may use any combination of these coping strategies during his or her lifetime. It is when these mechanisms fail to protect the individual at a certain point, however, that the individual will unconsciously experience an overwhelming sense of emotional discord and it will most likely be at this time that he or she seeks counseling.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Transference and Countertransference
- One of the most important concepts associated with psychoanalysis is the idea of transference, or the process of attributing one’s feelings from one person onto another.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Transference and Countertransference
- Transference is often manifested as an erotic attraction towards a counselor, but can be seen in many other forms such as rage, hatred, mistrust, parentification, extreme dependence, or even placing the counselor in a god-like or guru status.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Transference and Countertransference
- The goal of transference is to expose the unconscious motivation behind the individuals’ defense mechanisms by repeating or reenacting the attitudes, feelings, impulses, and desires which were generated in early life in relation to important figures in the individual’s development.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Transference and Countertransference
- This process occurs automatically and unconsciously and the role of the counselor is to assume a ‘blank screen,’ during which he or she “becomes a conduit for exposing the instinctual motivations behind the process, thereby bringing the process into consciousness where it can be examined and redirected”
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Transference and Countertransference
- Countertransference is defined as the emotional reactions to a patient that are determined not by the client’s own personality traits, disorders, and experiences, but rather the counselor’s own unconscious conflict.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Transference and Countertransference
- As a counseling tool, this concept can have both positive and negative effects on the treatment.
- Awareness of this process by the counselor can provide important insight into the client’s inner world and into the emotions and reactions the client often tends to induce in others.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Major Constructs
Transference and Countertransference
- However, the counselor must be able to recognize these feelings and address his or her own fears and distortions to use countertransference as an effective counseling tool, or damaging enactments, and impaired judgment may occur.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Overview
- The process of change emerges from the use of traditional and modified techniques to bring awareness to the client and frame current maladaptive behaviors in the context of prior experiences contributing to current circumstances in the client’s life.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Goals
- The general goals of psychodynamic counseling are client self-awareness and understanding of the influence of the past on present behavior, and the correction of the client's distortions is often the primary focus of therapeutic treatment.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Goals
- The primary goal of psychoanalysis is to bring the drives of the id into consciousness, allowing them to be understood and addressed directly, thus reducing the client’s reliance on defense mechanisms to function in social contexts.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Process of Change
- The basic method of psychoanalysis is the analysis and interpretation of the client’s unconscious conflicts which are interfering with daily functioning.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Process of Change
- This is done using a variety of traditional strategies and techniques such as the analysis of dreams, transference, resistance, and defenses, which encourage the client to increase his or her awareness of how the processes and behaviors have manifested and how to cope with new experiences in a more healthful, productive manner.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Analyzing Transference
- The counselor, as the object of transference, assumes the position of an anonymous tool for the client to expose the unconscious issues driving the maladaptive behaviors and maintains an obscure presence during the process of transference with the goal of analyzing the transferred material later.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Analyzing Resistances
- The counselor also analyzes the observed resistances from the client during sessions with the intent to expose, or bring into consciousness, the underlying causes for those resistances.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Analyzing Resistances
- Resistance is based on personal, instinctual ways of reacting to uncomfortable situations in which the client attempts to keep hidden aspects of themselves from the counselor.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Analyzing Resistances
- Psychoanalysis classifies client resistance into five categories, all emanating from the ego, the id, and the superego. Freud viewed all five categories of resistance as requiring more than just intellectual insight or understanding to overcome.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Analyzing Resistances
| Repression Resistance | Originates from the ego | Stems from the ego and includes various defenses and symptoms such as reaction-formation, obsession, anxiety, and phobias. |
| Transference Resistance | Originates from the ego | It presents as projection and also stems from the ego. This succeeds in establishing a relation to the counselor and reanimates a repression. |
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Analyzing Resistances
| Ego- Resistance | Originates from the ego | This is an unwillingness to renounce any satisfaction or relief that has been obtained. |
| Acting Out or ‘Working Through’ | Originates from the id | It presents as a compulsion to repeat maladaptive behaviors. |
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Analyzing Resistances
| Self-Sabotage | Originates from the superego | Appears as a sense of guilt or need for punishment. It opposes every move towards success, including the client’s own recovery through analysis |
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Posthypnotic Suggestions
- Hypnosis is a mental state or set of attitudes usually induced by a procedure known as a ‘hypnotic induction,’ which is commonly composed of a series of preliminary instructions and suggestions.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Posthypnotic Suggestions
- Hypnotherapy features one or more suggestions made to a hypnotized client that specifies an action to be performed after awakening, often in response to a cue, with the aim of unconsciously redirecting the behavior.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Free Association
- In free association, psychoanalytic clients are invited to relate whatever comes into their minds during the session without self-censorship.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Free Association
- The method of free association has no linear or preplanned agenda, but works by intuitive leaps and linkages which may lead to new personal insights and meanings.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Free Association
- The goal of this technique is not to unearth specific answers or memories, but to instigate a journey of co-discovery which can enhance the client's integration of thought, feeling, agency, and selfhood.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Dream Analysis
- Freud was one of the first to emphasize dreams as keys to the unconscious and interpreted dreams as symbolic wish fulfillments. He distinguished the manifest content of dreams, or the dream as it is recalled by the individual, from the latent content, or the actual meaning of the dream.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Dream Analysis
| Condensation | One dream object stands for several associations and ideas. |
| Displacement | A dream object's emotional significance is separated from its real object or content and attached to an entirely different one. |
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Traditional Intervention Strategies
Dream Analysis
| Representation | It is a thought which is translated to visual images. |
| Symbolism | When a symbol replaces an action, person, or idea. |
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Brief Intervention Strategies
- A central concept in brief counseling is that there should be one major focus for the counseling rather than the more traditional psychoanalytic practice of allowing the client to associate freely and discuss unconnected issues.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Brief Intervention Strategies
- The primary goal of brief psychoanalysis is to estimate what may have happened in the past that created a current issue.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Brief Intervention Strategies
- The counselor can also use confrontation to bringing an aspect of functioning, usually a defense, to the client's attention. The counselor then uses a variety of interpretation methods, such as dynamic interpretation, resistance interpretation, transference interpretation, or dream interpretation.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Brief Intervention Strategies
- When using a brief psychoanalytic approach, the therapeutic work has an orientation toward the future, but both client and counselor remain focused on the present with the goal to reduce anxiety and frame positive goals for the future.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Serious Mental Health Issues
- Psychoanalytic theory maintains that psychological disorders are the result of unconscious conflicts becoming extreme or unbalanced.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Serious Mental Health Issues
- Freud suggested that severe mental health issues are comprised of a constellation of symptoms which are caused by intrusions of hidden drives into voluntary behavior when defense mechanisms fail.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Serious Mental Health Issues
- The unconscious is the primary focus of treatment, when used in the treatment of serious mental illness, the aim is to trace the overt symptoms of the diagnosis back to their unconscious origins and analyze them through the use of rational thought and processing.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Serious Mental Health Issues
- The goal is to develop a sense of stability in the client through emotional processing of the past and linking to the present and to synthesize the personality components into one functional unit.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Cross Cultural Considerations
- A major criticism of psychoanalytic theory is based on the argument that it oversimplifies cultural paradigms due to the idea that humans are driven by sexuality and appears to ignore other factors, such as class, race, sexuality, gender, disability, and many others which shape culture.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Cross Cultural Considerations
- Some practitioners suggest that psychoanalysis is entirely inappropriate for use with certain cultures due to the lack of structure, lack of direct problem-solving, and a consistent emphasis on the reflection of childhood experience.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Cross Cultural Considerations
- It is also widely believed among many practitioners that psychoanalytic techniques can be adapted to different cultures, as long as the counselor genuinely understands the client's culture and how his or her culture influences the therapeutic dynamic and treatment plan.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Cross Cultural Considerations
- The use of certain defense mechanisms may be related to cultural values and may present as resistance, though they may actually be a logical response to historical oppression and discrimination.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Applications
Cross Cultural Considerations
- Layton (2007) suggests that to include modern cultural considerations into traditional psychoanalytic practice, a model is needed for understanding the relationship between the psychic and the social.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Evaluations
Overview
- Many theorists and practitioners focus their criticisms on the lack of specific attention to the present and future and particularly the lack of attention to cross-cultural applications and the potential for bias toward specific client populations.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Evaluations
Overview
- Other theorists favor the theory due to the dynamic foundation of development and structural components used to explain personality development and its contemporary applications to present maladaptive functioning.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Evaluations
Supportive Research
- Though the limitations of psychoanalytic theory may challenge counselors in unique ways, numerous outcome studies have shown that its efficacy is equal to that of other mainstream counseling modalities such as a cognitive-behavioral approach.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Evaluations
Supportive Research
- One of the greatest strengths of psychoanalytic theory is the breadth and depth of the explorations into personality development and coping skills, making this a comprehensive theory with much versatility in practical use.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Evaluations
Supportive Research
- Katz-Bearnot (2009) suggests that the psychoanalytic orientation offers the most comprehensive approach to counseling because the theory considers unconscious factors, including transference, enactments, and aspects of the client's personal relationships.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Evaluations
Limitations
- Traditional psychoanalysis is known to be a lengthy and costly therapeutic method.
- Practitioners require intensive training, making the availability of these professionals limited.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Evaluations
Limitations
- Early critics of psychoanalysis believed that its theories were based too little on quantitative and experimental research and too much on the clinical case study method.
Melinda Haley, Ph.D. Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions
Psychoanalytic Theory
Evaluations
Limitations
- Psychoanalytic practice has profound limitations as a form of research, since many of the existing studies are primarily case studies and therefore have limited broad external validity.
