Psychotherapy

I

Introduction

Psychotherapy, process of interaction between a therapist and patient aimed at dispelling distress arising through disorders of emotion, thinking, and behaviour.

II

Theoretical Background

The concept of talking to a specific individual about personal problems underpins the catharsis (therapeutic release of emotions) of the Roman Catholic confessional. The work of Aristotle on catharsis was discussed in the Viennese society of the 1880s. The notion that the problems might not be in our immediate conscious appreciation has also been known for centuries.

A

School of Psychoanalytical Psychotherapy

Sigmund Freud is generally regarded as the founder of psychotherapy. Although he did not invent it, it was his skill as a medical scientist and writer that enabled him to draw together the ideas prevailing in Vienna at the time and apply them to medical practice.

A

1

Freud

Freud used the hypnotic state, not for the purpose of suggestion, but to uncover painful and forgotten memories in his neurotic patients. By this technique, he not only attempted to help his patients but also collected the data from which he formulated psychoanalytic theory. Freud believed that during the course of a person’s development unacceptable sexual and aggressive drives are forced out of consciousness. These repressed urges, constantly striving for release, are sometimes expressed as symptoms of neurosis.

Freud thought that such symptoms could be eliminated by bringing the repressed fantasies and emotions into consciousness. He first used hypnosis as the means of gaining access to the unconscious. He soon abandoned the technique, however, in favour of free association, a method in which patients were asked to report whatever thoughts came to their minds about dreams, fantasies, and memories. By interpreting these associations Freud helped his patients gain the insight into their unconscious that he believed to be curative.

Later he placed great value on what could be learnt from transference (the patient’s emotional response to therapists), which in Freud’s view reflected earlier feelings towards the patient’s family members. Free association and transference reactions are still central features of Freudian psychoanalysis sessions. Some of Freud’s most gifted followers disagreed with him on important aspects of theory and therapeutic technique and subsequently founded schools of their own.