Psychoanalytic Perspectives Flashcards
The role of the analyst
Freud (1912): like a mirror (“to show [patient] nothing but what is shown to him”)
This allows ‘analysand’ to project repressed feelings on to analyst
Analyst remains out of sight (hence, couch)
Interpretation
How do we know when someone’s telling the truth?
Psychoanalysis looks behind the words, to uncover their “latent meaning”
Technique of free association
The analyst makes the client aware of this (whether correct or not)
Lacanian psychoanalysis
Jacques Lacan, French theorist (1950s/60s)
Reworked some Freudian concepts
Particular focus on language
Opposed idea of ‘truth’: analyst merely interrupts client’s ideas
Transference
Unresolved feelings from past relationship(s) re-emerge in new ones
May explain ‘relationship style’
e.g. problems with authority stem from relationship with father
Or, tendency to sexualise encounters with particular people
‘Inner’ model of relationships
Built up over life from various relationship experience
Bullying father leads to girl’s fear of men
Caring teacher counters this, and creates a more open-minded view of men
But, if model too rigid, may see teacher as either
Patronising or pitying
Or, not a ‘real man’
These attributions can lead to damaging or dysfunctional adult relationships
Transference in therapy
Encouraged by (Freudian) analyst: allows client to mistake the analyst for the original object (DM of displacement) Bring this into awareness and allow ego to be strengthened (weaken the DM)
Kleinian variant: not displacement but projection
Analyst as a ‘container’ for disintegrated aspects of the client that can be worked on in therapy
Counter-transference
Analyst a real person with own ‘inner’ model of relationships
So should be capable of their own transference to the patient
CT from “unresolved unconscious elements in analyst’s thinking”
May result in resistance
Kleinian version
CT can be useful source of knowledge
Example from Frosh (2012):
Female analyst is bored by self-obsessed male client, who shows no interest in her or her interpretations
‘Empty therapy’: can’t make any progress
Analyst reflects on other relationships with men, especially where relationship desired (unsuccessfully). Is this classic counter-transference?
Or perhaps her boredom results from other elements of analyst’s life or work?
So it’s important to reflect on where this comes from
When to stop the therapy?
Classic psychoanalysis is intensive
Ideally, 3-5 weekly sessions over several years
Psychoanalysts have to undergo therapy themselves in training
It is usually private: not the cheap option.
Lacan: therapy ends when client realises that there is no answer (truth and authority are illusory)
Adaptations: brief therapy
Brief focal therapy (Malan, 1976): one weekly session over 30 weeks
Focus on one area (e.g. a relationship)
Less emphasis on past
Analyst in full view
Interpersonal psychodynamic therapy:
Focus on current relationships
Addresses communication and social skills
Similar outcomes to CBT and depression
Evaluation of psychoanalysis
Main points in favour:
Recognition of professional-client relationship as significant
Treatment for whole person, not just ‘quick fix’
Long-term outcome better for psychoanalysis
BUT: because of this, it favours private medicine and wealthy clients
Also issue of patients’ verbal skills
Example of neurotic symptom
Phobia
Case history: Little Hans, or Analysis of a phobia in a five year-old boy (1909)
Fear of horses following cart accident
Mostly based on father’s notes (only one actual meeting)
Defence mechanisms
“mental action that blocks a perceived threat”
Can be internal/external, e.g. fantasy, wish, traumatic memory
DM operates below level of conscious awareness
Usually successful, but can be rigid and unhelpful if circumstances change (e.g. new relationship)
Repression: main DM for Freud
Memory can emerge, in dreams, or as ‘symptom’ – the “return of the repressed”
E.g. OCD behaviour like handwashing
Other defence mechanisms
Identified by Anna Freud (1936)
Regression, e.g. fixating on past (when anxiety coped with)
Reaction formation: do opposite, e.g. bullying to protect against inferiority
Denial: more discursive, but may convince self of its truth (or mitigate, e.g. ‘I’m only violent if provoked’)
From horses to castration
Hans’s therapy mostly conducted by father
Repression: ‘real’ anxiety around father and arrival of sister
Projection of anger on to father
Displacement on to ‘safe target’ (horses)
