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The Psychological Therapies

Module 52

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Therapy

The Psychological Therapies Psychoanalysis

Humanistic Therapies

Behavior Therapies

Cognitive Therapies

Group and Family Therapies

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History of Insane Treatment

Maltreatment of the insane throughout the ages. Many patients were given

dangerous treatments.

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History of Insane Treatment

Pinel in France and Dix in America founded humane movements to care for

the mentally sick.

http://wwwihm

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Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) Dorthea Dix (1745-1826)

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Therapies

Psychotherapy involves an emotionally charged, confiding interaction between a trained therapist and a mental patient.

Biomedical therapy uses drugs or other procedures that act on the patient’s

nervous system curing him of psychological disorders.

An eclectic approach uses various forms of healing techniques depending on the

client’s unique problems.

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Psychological Therapies

We will look at four major forms of psychotherapy based on different

theories on human nature:

1. Psychoanalytical theory

2. Humanistic theory3. Behavioral theory4. Cognitive theory

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Psychoanalysis

The first formal psychotherapy to emerge was psychoanalysis developed by Sigmund Freud.

Sigmund Freud's famous couch

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Psychoanalysis: Aims

the aim of psychoanalysis is to bring repressed feelings into conscious

awareness where the patient can deal with them.

When energy devoted to id-ego-superego conflict is released, the patient’s anxiety

lessens.

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Psychoanalysis: Methods

Dissatisfied with hypnosis, Freud developed the method of free association to unravel the

unconscious mind and its conflicts.

The patient lies on a couch and speaks whatever comes to his mind.

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Psychoanalysis: Methods

During free association, the patient expresses resistance that becomes

important in the analysis of conflict-driven anxiety.

Eventually the patient projects thoughts at the therapist, developing positive or

negative feelings (transference) towards him.

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Psychoanalysis: Criticisms

1. Psychoanalysis is hard to refute because it cannot be proven or disproven (non-scientific).

2. Psychoanalysis takes a long time and is very expensive.

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Behavior Therapy

Therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors.

There is no looking for inner causes.

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Classical Conditioning Techniques

Counterconditioning: a procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that

trigger unwanted behaviors.

It is based on classical conditioning and includes exposure therapy and aversive

conditioning.

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Exposure Therapy

Exposes patients to things they fear and

avoid.

Through repeated exposures anxiety

lessens because they habituate to the things feared.

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Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy involves exposing people to (fear of driving) objects in real or virtual

environments.

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Systematic DesensitizationA type of exposure therapy that associates

a pleasant, relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli

commonly used to treat phobias.

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Aversive Conditioning

A type of counterconditioning that associates an

unpleasant state with an unwanted

behavior.

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Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning procedures enable therapists to use behavior modification in which desired behavior is rewarded and

undesired behaviors are not or are punished.

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Token Economy

In institutional settings therapists may create a token economy, where a patient exchanges a token of some sort, earned for exhibiting the desired behavior, for

various privileges or treats.

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Cognitive Therapy

Teaches people adaptive ways of thinking and acting based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and

our emotional reactions.

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Cognitive Therapy for Depression

Aaron Beck (1979) suggests that depressed patients believe that they can never be

happy (thinking) and thus associate minor failings (e.g. failing a test [event]) in life as

major causes for their depression.

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Cognitive Therapy for Depression

Rabin et al., (1986) trained depressed patients to daily

record positive events and relate how they contributed to these events. Compared to

other depressed patients, trained patients showed lower depression

scores.

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Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

Cognitive therapists often combine the reversal of self-defeating thinking with

efforts to modify behavior.

Cognitive-behavior therapy aims to alter the way people act (behavior therapy) and alter the way they think (cognitive

therapy).

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Group Therapy

Group therapy normally consists of 6-9 people and a 90-minute session which can help more people and cost less.

Clients benefit from knowing others have similar problems.

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Family Therapy

Family therapy treats the family as a system. Therapy guides family members

toward positive relationships and improved communication.