HC.5 psychodynamic therapy Flashcards
Name the 7 basic principles that are commonly accepted over time:
- humans are partly motivated by unconscious wishes, fanatsies, or knowledge
- Increasing awarness of unconscious motivations can enhance personal choice
- it’s crucial to explore how people avoid painful, or threatening feelings and thoughts
- there is ambivalence
- the therapeutic relationship is essential for exploring self-defeating psychological processes
- the therapeutic relationship is also a vital vehicle for change
- helping clients understand how they construct their past and present can aid in overcoming self-defeating patterns
What does Freud mean with: ‘we are not masters of our own houses’?
Humans are not fully aware of the factors driving their actions
How does Freud describe ‘the unconscious’?
a domain of the psyche where impulses, wishes, and certain memories are hidden from conscious awareness because they are too threatening or culturally unacceptable.
What is meant by ‘fantasy’ in the earlier days (mainly by Freud)?
- Instinctual wishes for sexuality or aggression > wish fulfilments
- Fantasies play a role in the self-esteem regulation, safety, trauma mastery
Fantasies can be conscious and unconscious
Explain what primary processes mean
A prmitive form of psychic functioning present from birth and operating unconsciously throughout life
- lack of distinction between past, present and future
Explain what secondary processes mean
conscious thought, being logical > forming the basis for rational, reflective thinking
What are defenses?
Intrapsychic processes that help avoid emotional pain by pushing distressing thoughts etc. out of awareness
Name 3 forms of defenses:
- Intellectualization: discussing something threatening while maintaining an emotional distance
- projection: attributing one’s own threatening feelings or motives to another person
- reaction formation: denying a threatening feeling and proclaiming the opposite
Describe the Kleinian theory about defenses
splitting: an individu separates their perception of others into all-good and all-bad to avoid the conflict of ambivalent feelings.
What is transference?
a patient projects feelings and attitudes from a past relationship onto the therapist
How did Freud see transference first and now?
- first: as a resistance to recalling traumatic experiences
- now: essential for psychoanalytic process > it helps the therapist understand how the past experiences influences the present behavior
Why did the popularity of psychoanalysis decrease?
- psychiatry’s biological shift
- rise of CBT
- negative perceptions of psychoanalytic arrogance and insularity
Describe the conflict theory of the theory of personality
intrapsychic conflict: internal psychological struggles (opposing desires, impulses etc.)
- conflict between id and superego: conflict between id’s desires and superego’s moral standards
- conflict within ego: balancing between id en superego creates also tension
- unconscious conflict
Internal conflicts play a role in the development of personality styles
Name 4 character styles
- obsessive personality: manages conflict between obedience and defiance through intellectualization
- hysterical personality: desires emotional intimacy but defends against it
- phobic personality: displaces internal conflict onto external objects and situations
- Narcissistic personality: defends against dependency and fear of abandonment
What is the view of psychoanalysis on the personality styles?
they arise from the interplay of underlying desires and the defences used to manage them
Describe the object relations theory
internal representations shape how people perceive others, choose relationship partners, and interact within these relationships. the internal representations are formed through a process called internalization and are influenced by experiences, unconscious wishes, fantasies.
Describe the attachment theory
Humans have an instinctual need to maintain proximity to primary caregivers for survival.
How do the attachment theory and object relations theory differ from eachother?
they differ in their views on internalization:
AT: internal working models are based on actual interactions with caregivers
ORT: internal models are shaped by real experiences and unconscious fantasies
What are developmental arrest models and give 2 examples:
psychological issues arise when caregivers fail to provide an adequately supportive environment, leading to a halt in normal development.
1. Winnicott’s developmental theory
2. Kohut’s Self Psychology
Explain Winnicott’s developmental theory
- subjective omnipotence: infants initially believe their wishes can make things happen and that their needs will always be met by their mothers
- Gradual disillusionment: over time, inevitable maternal failures help infants distinguish between their fantasies and reality
- False self: if maternal responses are overly unresponsive or intrusive, infants may adapt to other’s needs
- optimal disillusionment: if maternal failures are gradual, infants can accept limitations without trauma
Explain Kohut’s Self psychology
- Cohesive Sense of self: children need caregivers who provide adequate mirroring or attunement to their needs
- empathic failures: inevitably, caregivers fail in attunement or empathy, but working through these failures with parents is critical for developing a cohesive sense of self
- therapeutic relationship: Both theories emphasize that therapy involves forming a new kind of relationship with the therapist, which helps resume the natural developmental process that had been arrested
What is psychoanalytic therapy?
- longterm treatment
- frequent sessions
- open-ended approach without fixed termination dates
- helping clients become aware of their unconscious motivations
- not giving advice
- avoiding the imposition of the therapist’s beliefs
- maintaining a certain level of anonymity
- adopting a neutral observer role
What is countertransference?
the therapist’s emotional entanglement with the patient
- The therapist’s total reactions to the client)
- First seen by Freud as a hinder
- now: a valuable source of info about the client’s unconscious experiences
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What is resistance?
The client’s tendency to hinder/ oppose therapeutic progress, often rooted in unconscious motivations to avoid emotional discomfort or change.
- now seen as an intrinsic aspect of the client’s psyche that requires exploration and understanding
