Psychological Therapies: Psychoanalysis

PSYCHOANALYSIS

• Repression and the unconscious mind
• Psychoanalysis is based on the assumption that people are unaware of the facts that cause their behaviour, emotions and general mental health. Some of which happening at an unconscious level.
• Referred to as 'insight therapy' because of belief that if a person understands their past, and the influence of it on their behaviour, then they will be able to deal with problems better in their present life. 
• Therapist attempts to trace unconscious factors to their origin so the person can deal with them. 
• e.g. An adult struggling to form intimate relationships may link it to troubles in childhood relationships.
• Free Association
• The patient expresses thoughts as they occur, even if they seem irrelevant. 
• Freud believed the value of free association lies with the belief that associations are determined by unconscious factors. Brings areas of conflict into consciousness.
• Therapist Interpretation
• Therapists listen as their patients talk, looking for clues and drawing tentative conclusions about a possible cause of the problem. 
• Patients may initially resist or may even display …