The psychodynamic approach therapy

Question 1

How does this therapy work

Answer 1

• this therapy works by talking about negative emotions and memories by bringing them out of the unconscious.
• also helps unconcious thoughts and feelings to the concsious

Question 2

Aim of Dream analysis

Answer 2

• the aim of this is to uncover latent content of a dream by examining the manifest content
• helps to offer insight that allows psychological issues to be resolved
• when we dream our ego defences are lowered so some of the repressed material comes through but in a disguised form

Question 3

Main components of dream analysis

Answer 3

• Dreams as wish fulfilment
  
  • frued believed that all dreams were the unconscious fulfilment of wishes that could not be satisfied in the conscious mind. Dreams protect the sleeper and allow some expression of the buried urges (wish fulfilment)

The symbolic nature of dreams
- dreams represent unfilled wishes and desires but the content is expressed symbolically so they dont cause stress
- referred to as manifest and latent content

Dreamwork
- the process where the latent content of a dream is transformed into manifest content
- these processes are applied to repressed wishes to produce the content of the dream that is experienced

The role of the therapist
- there to reverse the role of dreamwork and decode the manifest content back to the latent content
- should suggest various interpretations to the patient

Question 4

What is manifest content and latent content?

Answer 4

• manifest content is the content you actually experience in the dream
• latent content is the real meaning of the dream

Question 5

Dreamwork processes

Answer 5

• condensation
  
  • dream thoughts are rich in detail but through this they are condensed to brief images where one dream image stands for several
• displacement - emotional significance of a dream object is separated from its real object and attached to a different one

Symbolism - a symbol replaces an action, person or idea

Secondary elaboration - the unconscious mind collects all the different images ad ties them together to form a logical story which disguises the latent content even more

Question 6

How psychodynamic assumptions apply to dream analysis

Answer 6

• assumption : influence of the unconscious mind
  
  • threatening nature of our unconscious thoughts are disguised in our dream and dream analysis is used to make the unconscious conscious so people can gain insight on their behaviour
• assumption : behaviour is influenced by childhood experiences
  
  • traumatic memories buried in the unconscious may be related to childhood events that you find disturbing. May surface as a way of working through trauma.
• Dreamwork will censor disturbing thoughts so dream content is expressed symbolically

assumption: behaviour can be explained by the tripartite model of personality
-demands of the ID, the desires and wishes that are unacceptable in our normal working hours are relegated in our dreams
- ego blocks out unacceptable demands of the id and employ ego defence mechanisms but when we dream our ego defence is low

Question 7

Effectiveness of dream analysis

Answer 7

Research evidence
- Hopfield et al
- carried out research into neural networks and saw that they dealt with an overloaded memory by condensing memories
- supports frueds idea of condensation when unacceptable desires are censored
- Solms
- Used PET scans to highlight the regions of the brain that are active during dreaming and results showed that the rational part of the brain is inactive
- means that the ego becomes suspended while the self satisfying driven part of the mind is given free rein

Question 8

Effectiveness of dream analysis

Answer 8

Methodological issues

• research is conducted in sleep labs so ecological validity is questioned because it is not a natural way for someone to fall asleep so it may not have the same results
• Dreams are based on the subject report of the dreamer so this may not be valid as the dreamer may not recall everything accurately
• many studies are conducted on humans that have been deprived of sleep so this would cause disruption to the biological functions , results could lack validity

Question 9

Ethical issues of using dream analysis

Answer 9

• Time and expense
  
  • costs £1100 per 10 sessions which are an hour and a half

False memory syndrome
- a condition in which a person has an apparant recollection of an event that didn’t actually happen especially one of childhood sexual abuse

Emotional harm
- risk of stress, anxiety, humiliation of pain to participants as the dream could be emotionally distressing