Treating Abnormality: Psychoanalysis

Question 1

What is the aim of psychoanalysis?

Answer 1

To access the unconscious part of the mind, where repressed material is, in order to find the cause of the abnormality.

Question 2

Explain the process of free association and the therapist’s role.

Answer 2

The patient is encouraged to talk freely without holding any information back. Each thing they say may keep leading backwards towards, for example, childhood, and then repressed memories will come to light.

The therapist’s role is only to intervene when necessary to prompt the patient to keep talking or to encourage reflection on anything the patient mentions that might be important. They also pick out anything the patient mentions that could be analyzed further.

Question 3

Explain the process of dream analysis and why Freud was so interested in dreams.

Answer 3

Patients recall dreams that they have had while the therapist interprets them. Freud felt that defence mechanisms are lifted while a person is dreaming, and so repressed material is likely to be shown in dreams through symbolic imagery. By analyzing dream content, therapists may be able to find the root of abnormality in a patient.

Question 4

What is the manifest content of a dream?

Answer 4

The obvious content that the client can recall.

Question 5

What is the latent content of a dream?

Answer 5

The symbolic meaning beneath the obvious content of a dream.

Question 6

What is meant by dreamwork?

Answer 6

Dreamwork is the process by which latent content is distorted into manifest content. This can be done in many ways, such as through displacement or symbolization.

Question 7

What are the strengths of psychoanalytical therapies?

Answer 7

1. It is effective. Bergin’s meta-analysis of 10,000 patient histories showed that around 80% of people benefitted from psychoanalysis, compared to only 65% benefitting from a range of other therapies. However, some psychologists have claimed that receiving no treatment at all is more effective than psychoanalysis, as one set of research that 66% of patients spontaneously got better with no treatment, compared to 44% with psychoanalysis.
2. It acknowledges the complexity of human beings and that many adult disorders come from childhood issues and repressed material. Some other therapies are said to only treat symptoms of abnormality, rather than the cause itself.

Question 8

What are the limitations of psychoanalytical therapies?

Answer 8

1. It is a lengthy treatment lasting months or even years, as it needs to identify the root of the problem, which could have been in the person’s childhood. Some modern psychoanalytical therapies set a fixed number of sessions because of this.
2. It can be seen as unethical, as clients may be confronted with distressing repressed material. Therapists also have to take care not to interrupt the patient too much, as this might produce false memory syndrome, where the patient recalls something that didn’t really happen.