17: Treatment of Psychological Disorders - Psychodynamic Therapies

Question 1

Psychodynamic Therapies

Answer 1

The psychodynamic approach to psychotherapy focuses on internal conflict and unconscious factors that underlie maladaptive behaviour.

Question 2

Psychoanalysis

Answer 2

Goal is to help clients achieve insight (conscious awareness of psychodynamics that underlie their problems)

Question 3

Psychoanalysis

Free Association

Answer 3

procedure of verbalizing all thoughts that enter consciousness without censorship

• Freud sat out of sight from patient so thought processes would be determined by internal factors

Question 4

Psychoanalysis

Dream Interpretation

Answer 4

• The analyst tries to help the client search for the unconscious material contained in the dreams.
• Dream interpretation through free association of dream elements

Question 5

Psychoanalysis

Resistance

Answer 5

Largely unconscious manoeuvres that protect clients from dealing with anxiety-arousing material in therapy

Question 6

Psychoanalysis

Transference

Answer 6

psychoanalytic phenomenon in which a client responds irrationally to the analyst as if he were an important person from the client’s past who plays an important role in the client’s dynamics

• Positive transference occurs when a client transfers intense affection, dependency, or love to the analyst
• Negative transference occurs when a client transfers expressions of anger, hatred, or disappointment to the analyst

Question 7

Psychoanalysis

Interpretation

Answer 7

Any statement by the therapist intended to provide the client with insight into their behaviour or dynamics

Question 8

Brief Psychodynamic Thereapies

Answer 8

• Clients seen a few times a week, rather than daily
• Focus on current life situations, rather than on past childhood experiences
• Interpersonal therapy – form of brief therapy that focuses on the client’s interpersonal problems and seeks to develop new interpersonal skills