Corey Theory and practice of Counseling

Ch. 4 Psychoanalytical therapy

Freud: authoritarian father, attractive loving mother. Severe emotional
problems in his 40s, it drew him into self-analysis. Interest: dynamics of
personanilty development, childhood memories. Intolerant to Jung and Adler
theories.
View of human nature: determined by irrational forces, unconscious
motivations and institnctive drives. Libido - sexual energy, source of
motivation. Death instincts aggressive drive.
Goal of life pleasure, avoiding pain

Personality structure:
Id: seat of instincts, pleasure principle, avoiding pain, never matures.
Ego: mediator-traffic cop, controls consciousness. Ruled by reality principle.
Superego: personal, society moral code. Related to psych reward and
Punishment, such as guilt and inferiority.
Unconcious: dreams (wishes and conflicts), slips of tongue, free associations.
Stores needs, memories, repressed material. Root of neurotic symptoms.
Anxiety: tension that motivates us to do something. Reality anxiety: fear of
danger of external world. Neurotic anxiety: fear of instincts. Moral anxiety: fr of
own conscience.

Ego defense mechanisms, Help to cope with anxiety. Repression, denial,

reaction formation, projection, displacement, racionalization, sublimation,
regression, introjection

Eg
Erikson. Crisis turning point, opportunity to regress or move forward.

Classical psychoanalysis focuses on id.

Contemporary psychoanalysis focuses on ego, early developmental stages,
crisis of adolescence, adulthood, each stage is related to others.
Classic psychoanalysis:
Therapeutical goals: make the unconscious conscious, strengthen ego on
reality.
Looks into the past, oriented to achieve insight.
Therapists function: based on transference (transfer of feelings to early
relationships into the therapist) were clients make projections to them.
Encourage clients on selfawareness, dealing with anxiety, control over
impulsive and irrational behavior. Listening and interpret client based on a
strong thempathic relationship. Attention to resistances. Uncover unconscious
material. Teach clients through interpretations that they are able to achieve
insight into their probloems, increase awareness, gain control.
Fundamental rule: free association on a couch, no self censor ship. Reduces
clients ability tor ead face of therapists. Non judgemental, analist asks
questions, makes interpretations.

Psychodynamic therapy: Shorten therapy. Aasked not to make radical

changes on their lifes as a result of loosening of defenses. Less sessions,
therapist is supportive. Face to face. Therapy termination when symptoms
have been resolved, clients understood their difficulties, have less

defensiveness and more awareness of present relationships. Termination can

provoke feelings of loss, it is discuss in therapy.
Transference: clients unconscious shifting to the analyst of feelings and
fantasies that are reactions to significant others in the clients past. Therapist
become substitute for significant others. Not all feelings clients have for
therapists are transference.
Working-through: repeating interpretations, exploring forms of resistance.
Counter transference: therapists respond in irrational way, losing their
objectivity because own conflicts are triggered. Subtle nonverbal, tonal,
attitudinal actions. Countertransference can help if herapists study their
internal reactions and use them to understand clients.
Application, therapeutic techniques and procedures.
Geared to limited objectives, no couch, supportive interventions, here and
now, focus on mutual transference and practical concerns.
6 techniques: 1 maintain analytic framework (anonymity, neutrality,
objectivity), 2 free association (clients feelings and toughts without
censorship), 3 interpretation (therapist explaining meanings of behavior
manifested in dreams, free association, resistances and therapy itself), 4
dream (latent content, hidden symbolic unconscious motives wishes and fears;
manifest content, dream itself) analysis, 5 resistance analysis (prevents
awareness of unconscious material, that can promote change, defends against
anxiety but interferes with the ability to accept change, 6 transference analysis
(clients recognize how they repeat same dynamic patterns in their
relationships with the therapist). Pg. 82/97

Application to group counseling: transference and countertransference,

symbolic mothers, fathers, siblings lovers.
Jungs perspective on the development of personality
Midlife crisis, change of values and behaviors. Abandoned Freuds sexual
theory, developed a spiritual approach to find meaning in llfe instead of being
diven by psych and biological forces. Not merely shaped by past events, but by
our future. We tend to move forward, individuation, integration of conscious
and unconscious aspects is primary./
Collective unconscious: deepest level of the psyche containing
accumulkation of inherited human experiences.
Universal experiences are the archetypes. The person, public mask, the
animus and anima, psychological aspects of masculinity and feminity, the
shadow has the deepest roots and is the most dangerous.
Object relations theory, various theorists, how our relationhips with other
people are affected by the way we have internalized our experiences of others
and set up representations of others within ourselves. Object, person which
satisfies a need.
Mahler: childs symbiotic relationship with mother, separation and
individuation. Normal infantile autism, infant unable to differentiate from its
mother.
Directions contemporary psychodynamic therapy: directed to disturbances in
childhood and adolescence, chronic personality disorders, good therapeutic
alliance, briefer forms of psychodynamic therapy.
Diversity perspective shortcomings: costly, based on uppermiddle class values,
concerned with long term personality reconstruction.