Freud's Psychodynamic Therapy

Transference is often manifested as an erotic attraction towards a therapist, but can be seen in many other forms such as rage, hatred, mistrust, prettification, extreme dependence, or even placing the therapist in a god-like or guru status. When Freud initially encountered transference in his therapy with clients, he felt it was an obstacle to treatment success. But what he learned was that the analysis of the transference was actually the work that needed to be done. The focus in psychodynamic psychotherapy is, in large part, the therapist and client recognizing the transference relationship and exploring what the meaning of the relationship is. Because the transference between patient and therapist happens on an unconscious level, psychodynamic therapists who are largely concerned with a patient's unconscious material use the transference to reveal unresolved conflicts patients have with figures from their childhoods. Countertransference is defined as redirection of a therapist's feelings toward a client, or more generally as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client. A therapist's atonement to his own countertransference is nearly as critical as his understanding of the transference. Not only does this help the therapist regulate his or her own emotions in the therapeutic relationship, but it also gives the therapist valuable insight into

Freud originally thought that the ideal therapist needed to be a blank slate; that they needed to remain neutral and not project any of their own thought and experiences onto their clients (Henretty & Levitt, 2010). However, this is no longer widely believed to be true; social workers who are more client-centered believe that through therapy-relevant self-disclosure and by “modeling openness, strength, vulnerability, and the sharing of intense feelings,” clients will be able to learn from this behavior and become more trusting and empathetic (Kottler, 2003 & Knox, Peterson, & Hill, 1997 as cited in Henretty & Levitt, 2010). However, a majority of the training still warns against self-disclosure

Psychodynamic and client-centered therapy can both help clients with their life stressors. I do find myself conflicted on which one to lean more into. I believe that it is important for me to learn about a client’s childhood experiences to help me better understand them and get an idea of how it might like to live in their world. Furthermore, I also believe that a client has the right to choose what he or she wants to work on and should have control on their session. I am aware that in order to provide good service to the client, I need to be aware of my thoughts and feelings in order to be able to recognize potential countertransference situations. I need to check myself if a client ever makes me feel certain way about a particular situation.

This technique also works well with Freud’s technique of psychodynamic therapy: Free Association. Free association will give you fragments of repressed memories in words. In the Psychoanalytic Therapy Applied to the Case of Stan, Corey notices patterns pertaining to Stan’s father. In the beginning of the seventh session, Corey addresses Stan that he shuts himself off. Stan is slow at times; he stops and thinks before he talks. When Corey performed Freud’s technique of psychodynamic therapy, Free Association on the word “father”, Stan paused with every single word describing his father. This helped Corey uncover some of the unresolved issues form his past that is effecting his present. Stan mentions in the video that his father is blind. He

These concepts aid the client to become aware and explore aspects of themselves that are not aware of. The therapy sessions are not as frequent as those of other therapies and treatment is not limited to a particular number of visit. Psychodynamic therapy does not only focus on relieving the client’s presenting problem, but also positively influence other aspects of the client’s life: relationships, self-esteem, satisfying sexual experiences, understanding of self and others while encouraging self-discovery, just to make a few. Psychodynamic therapy assists the client in uncovering the layers of one’s self and allowing the client to reach deeper within them for healing.

One of Freud’s greatest contribution was his theory that the human psyche has multiple levels of consciousness structured into three parts, the id, ego, and superego (Van Der hart & Horst, 1986). Ranking amongst the most influential psychoanalytic theories of the aetiology of DID is Kelly and Kodman’s, (1993) ego state theory, which proposes that the psyche of an individual with DID comprises of multiple conflicts between the incompatible ego states that represents themselves as separate individuals. According to Kelly and Kodman (1993) within both the normal and the abnormal individual the mind is polypsych with multiple psychological systems and processes existing synchrony with one another. The theory argues that the distribution of personalities lies on a continuum ranging from normal adaptive differentiation at one end to pathological maladaptive dissociation at the other (Kelley & Kodman, 1987, Watkins, 1993).

(A) In the midst of the twentieth century, an Austrian doctor, Sigmund Freud, introduced new ideas about mental illness and treatment to such illnesses that not only “[changed] the way we think about mental illness,” but also paved a path to the field as we know today as psychiatry. In his several theories and models, Freud presents claims of every individual possessing an unconscious in which we harbor our conflicts. Through a treatment that he personally developed called psychoanalysis, Freud would help people adjust to those conflicts. Essentially, in the Austrian psychologist’s paradigm, use of deep, personal relationships established through psychoanalysis were used to identify and adjust mental illnesses that exhibited symptoms of uneasiness.

Furthermore, in this Psychodynamic theory, the relationship between the client and therapist is highly important. The therapeutic relationship is evaluated by transference and countertransference of feelings or desires, which are buried in the clients/therapists unconscious. This is the reason why they

There is, perhaps, no greater contentious figure in the history of psychology than Sigmund Freud.  Despite his theory being heavily criticized, almost since its genesis, psychoanalytic theory is firmly rooted in the field’s history and in the hallowed books and introductory classes educating future generations.  Moreover, psychoanalytic theory has spanned a century of research and clinical application and has borne other avenues of empirically-supported research in helping to understand and explain human functioning.  Psychodynamic theorists, or contemporary psychoanalysts, are the relative few that openly subscribe to, in whole or part, to Freudian theories.  Only begrudgingly does the field accept any of the assumptions of psychoanalytic

One of the main implications of Freud’s work was the development of psychoanalysis, which was considered unscientific as any evidence supporting its success was based on self-report data and not on scientific evidence. In addition, any evidence that did regard psychoanalysis as a successful treatment of mental illness did not suggest that it was any more successful than other treatments.

Sigmund Freud, a man of many talents, most people simply know him as the father of psychoanalysis, which happens to be one of his most famous psychological contributions; however, Freud was much more than just the father of psychoanalysis, yet Sigmund Freud was a husband, a psychologist, as well as a medical doctor. He grew up in what many would consider a normal environment, he went to college, where he continuously studied psychology, he also got married. Throughout his years of study, Freud made many psychological contributions, such as psychoanalysis, Freud’s Psychosexual Stage Theory, Freud’s Oedipus Complex, and his many different psychoanalytic techniques.

Sigmund Freud is well known in the field of psychology, for he “was the founding father of psychoanalysis, a method for treating mental illness and also a theory which explains human behavior. Psychoanalysis is often known as the talking cure. Typically Freud would encourage his patients to talk freely (on his famous couch) regarding their symptoms and to describe exactly what was on their mind” (McLeod).

Freud was one of the most significant influences in the twentieth century for psychology. He founded and was later known as the father of psychoanalysis, it was used in treating people with mental illnesses. Most people know psychoanalysis as the therapy/talking remedy. He would sit his patients down and talk openly about their different emotions and problems they were currently facing. One of Freud’s cases in particular was brought to people’s attention. “The case of Anna O” the girls real name was Bertha, however this case was very important for Freud because it was basically what essentially started his career. The girl he called Anna suffered from hysteria, which is “a condition in which the patient exhibits physical symptoms (e.g. paralysis, convulsions, hallucinations, loss of speech) without apparent

The founder of Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud was a physiologist, and medical doctor and a psychologist. During the span of his research in psychotherapy he was criticized by many who claimed his research was not science. Although it has been decades and Freud’s work has filled many of today’s psychology textbooks, there are contemporary critics who still question the legitimacy of Freud’s scientific work. Sigmund Freud’s achievements unlocked the unconscious and developed modern psychotherapy. Freud’s childhood was more than ordinary. The structure of his family may have been confusing to Freud as a child. His father was old enough to look like he could have been Freud’s grandfather and his half-brothers looked as if they were old enough

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist best known for developing the theories and techniques of psychoanalysis. Freud was the founding father of psychoanalysis which is a method through which an analyst unpacks unconscious conflicts based on the free association, dreams and fantasies of the patient. Sigmund Freud was greatly influenced by the work of his friend and colleague Josef Breuer. Together the two published their theories and findings in Studies of Hysteria. Eventually the two parted ways because of different ideas. Freud’s theories were and still are some of the most influential academic concepts.