Week 2- psychoanalysis

Question 1

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy

Answer 1

Group of treatments that are rooted in the same theoretical background.
Focus on human subjectivity and its interplay with both the external and internal environments

Question 2

Classic psychoanalysis

Answer 2

Client on couch not looking at therapist. High frequency, long term

Question 3

Contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy

Answer 3

Client and therapist facing each other. Medium to low frequency, medium to short term

Question 4

Psychoanalytic psychotherapies incorporate

Answer 4

A developmental perspective
Unconscious conflict
Defense mechanisms
Internal representations of relationships
The search for authenticity and trust about self
Complex meanings that are attached to experience

Question 5

Conscious mind

Answer 5

What we are aware of

Question 6

Pre conscious mind

Answer 6

Thoughts that may become conscious at some point eg. Through dreams and slip of the tongue

Question 7

Unconscious mind and why it occurs

Answer 7

The part we are unaware of. Contains our biological instincts and drives. Survival and sexual instincts including aggression. Childhood memories. It is the driving, motivating force behind our behaviour & personality
Occurs because:
-The associated affects are too threatening
-Content of the impulses are learned by the individual to be unacceptable through cultural conditioning

Question 8

How are the unconscious and conflicts explored?

Answer 8

Free association and technical neutrality

Question 9

A representation is

Answer 9

A distorted lens through which one is looking at oneself and the other. Prediction of how things will go between oneself and the other. It is affective laden. Developed in interactions with important others. Mostly unconscious

Question 10

Transference

Answer 10

What the client makes of the therapist

Question 11

Countertransference

Answer 11

What the therapist is experiencing in contact with the client.
Therapists use it to serve the client

Question 12

Right brain mammals for our first 1000 days

Answer 12

Only feel but cannot think about feelings because our brain wont allow it

Question 13

Defense mechanisms

Answer 13

What we use not to feel painful feelings.
They are linked to how we conceptualize suffering and personality.
They are unconscious
Grouped on how adaptive they are
Mature person: Uses defense mechanisms that bring things together
Immature personality: Split things and keep things apart

Question 14

Personality (Freud)

Answer 14

3 part structure: Id, ego and superego
Are in constant conflict and the outcome determines our behaviour

Question 15

Id

Answer 15

Present at birth
Demands immediate satisfaction
Drives you to act on your urges without restraint

Question 16

Superego

Answer 16

Morality principle
Mainly unconscious
Not born with it- Develops at 4/5
Act as conscience
Tries to suppress the urge of the id
Dominant superego: Judgemental, critical

Question 17

Ego

Answer 17

Reality principle
Controls urges and desires so they are expressed in acceptable ways
Acts as mediator between the id and superego

Question 18

Developmental perspective to psychoanalysis

Answer 18

Suffering comes from events one experienced in the past that are vivid in the present via internal representations through which one sees oneself and others, and has expectations of the interaction
The effect of these experiences varies because of predisposition e.g. temperament, circumstances e.g. poverty
The representations are kept alive through repetition (because we repeat what we know)

Question 19

Technical neutrality and outcomes

Answer 19

Its easier to tackle difficulties in life if you know different sides of yourself as much as possible.

Outcomes:
Symptom reduce
Know yourself better
More honest with yourself
Better relationships

Question 20

Mechanisms of change

Answer 20

Affect awareness, emotional insight & processing
Creating meaning & historical reconstruction
Transference & enactments
Therapeutic alliance, containment & rupture and repair
Changes in defense mechanisms & representations

Question 21

Containment (mechanism of change)

Answer 21

Holding the emotion and staying while its happening

Question 22

Marked mirroring (mechanism of change technique)

Answer 22

Receiving the emotion but not being overwhelmed by it

Question 23

When is psychodynamic therapy indicated

Answer 23

-A variety of symptoms: self-esteem, anxiety,
depression, sexual problems, relational problems, etc.
-When one is suffering from a pattern that is repeated over time
-When a symptom focused therapy did not bring enough relief
Personality problems

Question 24

Freud was convinced fantasy served several psychic functions

Answer 24

RFRM
Need for regulation of self esteem
Need for a feeling of safety
Need for regulating affect
Need to master trauma

Question 25

Primary process

Answer 25

Raw or primitive form of psychic functioning Begins at birth Operates unconsciously throughout the lifetime No distinction between past, present, future Feelings and images can be condensed Infants operate here as part of normal development Seen in dreams and psychosis

Question 26

Secondary process

Answer 26

Form of psychic functioning associated with consciousness Logical, sequential and orderly Foundation for rational, reflective thinking

Question 27

Defenses (Freud)

Answer 27

Intrapsychic process that functions to avoid emotional pain by pushing thoughts, feelings or fantasies out of awareness

Question 28

Intellectualization

Answer 28

Talks about something threatening while keeping emotional distance from it

Question 29

Projection

Answer 29

Attributing a threatening feeling that you are experiencing to another person

Question 30

Reaction formation

Answer 30

Denying a threatening feeling and proclaiming to feel the opposite

Question 31

Splitting

Answer 31

Important to Kleinian theory Splitting a representation of a person into two different images Done to avoid their perception of someone as good being contaminated by negative feelings Commonly done by infants to feel safe with their mothers

Question 32

Transference (Freud)

Answer 32

When a client views their therapist in ways that they viewed significant figures in their childhood- especially parents

Question 33

One person psychology

Answer 33

Therapist is an objective and neutral observer who could serve as a blank screen onto whom the client projects his transference

Question 34

2 person psychology

Answer 34

Therapist and client viewed as co-participants who engage in an ongoing process of mutual influence at both conscious and unconscious levels Therapist must develop some awareness about his own contribution to the interaction

Question 35

Reasons for the decline of psychoanalysis

Answer 35

Psychiatry becoming increasingly biological Rise of CBT Evidence-based treatment Negative public reaction to an attitude of arrogance, insularity and elitism that was associated with the psychoanalytic tradition Lack of receptiveness to valid criticism and empirical research

Question 36

Talking cure

Answer 36

Talking freely about traumatic experiences and recovering painful memories that had been dissociated

Question 37

Free association

Answer 37

Clients encouraged to suspend their self critical function and verbalize thoughts, images, associations and feelings that are on the edge of awareness

Question 38

Seduction theory (Freud)

Answer 38

Sexual trauma always lies at the root of psychological problems

Question 39

Psychic energy (Freud)

Answer 39

Maintaining it at a constant level is imperative Once it is activated it needs to be discharged This restores psychic equilibrium and is experienced as pleasure

Question 40

How discharge of psychic energy takes place

Answer 40

Expression of affect Satisfaction of a sexual urge Repetition of an experience that has become associated with tension reduction through experience

Question 41

Pleasure principle

Answer 41

The psychobiological push to repeat experiences that have become associated with tension reduction

Question 42

Object relations theory (stemmed from melanie klein)

Answer 42

The way in which we develop internal representations of our relationships with significant others

Question 43

British independents/ The middle group

Answer 43

Fairbarn, Balint, Winnicott, Bowlby Emphasis on the importance of: Spontaneity Creativity Therapist flexibility Value of providing clients with a nurturing and supportive environment

Question 44

Relational theorists

Answer 44

Rejected Freud's drive theory of motivation Placed greater emphasis on the instinctual need for human relatedness