© Banff and Buchan College 2004

Phobias: Psychodynamic Therapy

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Psychodynamic therapy for phobias

Comment on and evaluate research evidence

Noticing

Psychodynamic therapy

• What does a psychodynamic psychologist see as the problem a phobic patient has?

• How might that influence the way they try to solve the patient’s problems?

Catharsis

Letting out the bad things trapped in the unconscious mind...

...gets rid of the symptoms

being experienced consciously.

Psychodynamic therapy for phobia

1. Identify what the unconscious fear is

2. Help the client bring it to consciousness

3. Help the client understand, accept and then change how they deal with the fear

Psychodynamic therapy

Free association

• The client relaxes and tries not to think about anything. They simply allow thoughts to enter their mind and describe them to the therapist.

Dream analysis

• The client keeps a record of the things they dream about. They bring it to their therapy sessions and describe the dreams to the analyst.

Evaluating a treatment: TEARS

• Time – How long does it take?

• Effectiveness – How much improvement does it produce?

• Acceptability – Is the procedure difficult or unpleasant?

• Relapse – How likely is the problem to come back?

• Side effects – Does the treatment have unintended consequences?

Effectiveness of psychotherapy

• Freud (1905) – the ‘Little Hans’ study

• Eysenck (1952) – study of therapy outcomes

Writing a paragraph of evaluation

• S.E.J.

• State the strength/weakness

• Explain why it is a strength/weakness

• Justify the criticism

Evaluating psychotherapy

• Time – Can take many years

• Effectiveness – Freud, Eysenck

• Acceptability – Requires examination of childhood & repressed memories

• Relapse – Symptom substitution

• Side effects – Upsetting & has potential for creating false memories

Homework

• Write a blog entry: How would a behaviourist and a psychoanalyst try to cure your bad habit? Which treatment would you rather have and why?

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