Chapter 14 Entry

In yesterday's blog I talked about psychological disorders. The disorders can't be cured but they can be treated with psychological therapy which consist of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties. There are many different types of psychological therapies today and depending on a client's problem psychotherapists uses techniques from all these different forms of therapy. This approach is the eclectic approach. One type of therapy is psychoanalysis. This therapeutic technique founded by Freud believes the patient's free associations, resistances; the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material, dreams, and transferences release previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight. The therapist interprets all this by noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant beavers and events in order to promote insight. After a couple a sessions the patient may experience positive or negative feelings toward the therapist. This is known as transference. A therapy deriving from psychoanalysis is psychodynamic therapy. It views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences. Along with psychoanalysis, humanistic therapy is another type of psychological therapy. These two types of therapies are refereed to as insight therapies; they aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing the client's awareness of underlying motives and defenses.