Insight Therapy And Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

In the text “Relaxing Your Fears away,” the author presents how Joseph Wolpe, a behavior therapist, used a behavioral technique called systematic desensitization to treat anxiety disorders. Systematic desensitization is a technique that is supposed to lower a person’s level of anxiety steadily. The reason he used this technique was to see if this technique actually worked using his prior ideas that two feelings or responses cannot occur at the same time. Wolpe focused on the phobias his patients had and proposed that when his patients were in a relaxed state, then they would not respond with fear when presented with something that gave them anxiety.

Still today it is not known why ECT works but it seems to cause changes in brain chemistry that can quickly reverse symptoms of certain mental illnesses. It is also said that the shock literally shocks the person out of their illness as it is regarded as a punishment for the inappropriate behaviour. Another explanation is that the associated memory loss following shock allows the person to start afresh. They literally ‘forget’ they were suffering from a mental illness. Created in +1934 by Hungarian neuropsychiatrist Ladislas Meduna, [11]. However, ECT was not introduced in England until 1939 when Lothar Kalinowsky, observed the treatment administered in Italy and decided to use it in England due to its promising results. During this time high doses of electricity were administered without anaesthesia and muscle relaxations. This lead to memory loss, fractured bones and other serious side effects, which lead to, much of the stigma attached to ECT, because of these early treatments [12]. ECT is a treatment that is still used today, however much less brutally than in the 1930s.

Behavior Modification, a psychological theory of human behavior. It evolved from the application of experimentally derived principles of learning to the modification of problem behaviors. The theory is based on a psychological model of human behavior that rejects the psychoanalytic or quasi-disease model of mental illness. Approaches to behavior modification assume that abnormal behavior is acquired and maintained in the same manner as normal behavior and can be changed directly through the application of social-learning principles. Assessment procedures focus on describing how an individual behaves, thinks, and feels in specific situations. Treatment methods are derived from the theories and findings of

In essence, what happens is that the individual is dazed, confused, and disoriented, and therefore cannot remember or appreciate current problems. The shocks are then continued for a few weeks (sometimes several times a day) to make the procedure 'take,' that is, to damage the brain sufficiently so that the individual will not remember, at least for several months, the problems that led to his being shocked in the first place. The greater the brain damage, the more likely that certain memories and abilities will never return. Thus memory loss and confusion secondary to brain injury are not side effects of electroshock; they are the means by which families (perhaps unwittingly) and psychiatrists sometimes choose to deal with troubled and troublesome persons”

Behavioural approach treats bipolar, self-harm and bulimia by using a therapy called systematic desensitisation, where the client would create a hierarchy where they rank the conditioned stimulus (e.g. food) from least fearful to most fearful. The behavioural approach only focuses on the behaviour of the client rather than the thought or reason why the client has the disorder/illness. The Behaviourist Approach assumes that behaviour is decided for us rather than our free will in terms of the social learning theory, operant conditioning and classical conditioning whereas the cognitive approach assumes that behaviour is determined for us by cognitive/mental processes of which we cannot control including memory.

Most insane asylums used several treatments. And some of those treatments are still used today. Many treatments were lobotomies, Trephinations, ice and restraints and Insulin therapy. Lobotomies consists of cutting or scraping away most of the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain. Not only did they perform Lobotomies but also Trephination. Trephinations is one of the earliest forms of treatment for mental illness. What

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, treatments were usually inadequate for people with severe depression. As a result, many desperate people were treated with lobotomy, a surgical operation involving incision into the prefrontal lobe of the brain, which had become a popular “calming” treatment at the time. Lobotomies were often unsuccessful, causing personality changes, inability to make decisions, and poor judgement; or even worse, coma and sometimes death. A popular treatment for schizophrenics called Electroconvulsive therapy, was also used as a treatment for depressed

However, although Wolpe wasn’t the first to suggest systematic desensitization as the best method to be used when treating anxiety disorders he was the first successfully apply it. With Wolpe believing phobia are learned he believed he could reduce the anxiety by a conditioning procedure. His theory of suppressing the phobias was the fundamental idea of behavioral therapy where you have learned an ineffective behavior or the phobia in this case and must now unlearn it. With this in mind, Wolpe created and used behavioral therapy as his basis and composed a three step process of desensitizing the phobia. First using relaxation training to create a personal state of relaxation Wolpe then moved to the construction of an anxiety hierarchy where he and the patient developed a list of scenes involving the phobia and finally the actual unlearning processes of desensitization was created. Repeating all three steps as one Wolpe averaged out at 12 sessions. As a result, his session results positively favored his method with a 91% success rate accompanying it and supporting his usage of correctly applying systematic desensitization to phobias or anxiety

Systematic desensitization is a venerable behavior therapy for fear and anxiety. Usually it entails remaining deeply relaxed while visualizing a series of increasingly fearsome scenes in which the patient confronts targeted events or situations. There are many theories about how systematic desensitization reduces fear; most “theories” are post hoc claims that systematic desensitization instantiates some other training regimen or process such as respondent extinction, habituation, counterconditioning, or self-efficacy augmentation. Joseph Wolpe's original theory of how systematic desensitization works appeals to learned inhibition of anxiety that is based on parasympathetic inhibition of sympathetic activation. Criteria have been developed to

The two psychological interventions that were administered to McMurphy while in the mental institution were a lobotomy and shock therapy. A lobotomy is the removal of the portion from the frontal lobe of the brain. This procedure’s main goal is to eliminate aggressive or violent behavior. This invention took place in 1935 by Dr. Antonio Egas Moniz. However, by the late 1940s the realization those individuals undergoing lobotomy procedures took place without initiative became apparent. Although the methods of a lobotomy have changed the basic underlying idea of neurosurgery exists today in the form of “psychosurgery” (Encarta 2000). Shock Therapy uses electric current or drugs to control psychotic disorders. In 1933, Dr. Manfred Sakel used drugs and instituted insulin shock to control mainly Schizophrenia. In 1938, Drs. U. Cerletti and L. Bini used electroshock therapy to treat severe depression (i.e. manic depressive psychoses). Alternating current through the brain using parallel

Electroshock Therapy, also known as Electroconvulsive Therapy, made its way into mental facilities in the 1940’s and 50’s to treat the mentally disable, though this type of therapy caused many unwanted side effects it was still used. Most believe that the treatment could cure many mental illnesses such as Schizophrenia, Acute mania and depression, they even believed that it could cure homosexuality. How this treatment works is that two rods place on the temples of a patient a current of electricity is pushed through the brain disturbing the brain waves. People argued its’ use because of the abuse that was reported by the media. The question on many minds are why was it used and how could this method be used in a respected medical

This article shows the effectiveness of insight therapy. The author did a great job at explaining very meticulously the different steps she took to lead the couple through insight therapy. In addition to that, she illustrated every step with the transcript of the couple’s session, which allowed for a very comprehensive and practical understanding of the process. By looking for the opportunities to explore ruptures and unconscious motivations in the reactions of the couple, she was able to create a new relational experience and to “engender integrative insight (Marmarosh 1).” Mary and John were able to understand each other in a deeper, more meaningful way and to learn more about their own coping mechanisms as well as (understand) some of the

Systematic Desensitization is one type of Behavior Therapy. Joseph Wolpe first developed this as a form of classical conditioning that is used to reduce anxiety disorders, treat fears, and phobias. It is also used to help a person relax more without worrying about their fear. Some fears or phobias that are treated by Systematic Desensitization are fear of public speaking, fear of flying, stage fright, elevator phobias, driving phobias, and animal phobias(Mind Disorders-Systematic Desensitization). The purpose of this strategy is to help someone that might have phobias and other fears.

Among the three main approaches to insight therapy (psychoanalysis, client-centered, or group therapy), the one that l believe has the most reasonable way to deal with psychological problems, is client-centered therapy. Client-centered therapy is an insight therapy that emphasizes providing a supportive emotional climate for clients, who play a major role in determining the pace and direction of their therapy (pg. 459). According to Carl Rogers, the man who devised client-centered therapy, three elements were necessary to promote positive changes in therapy: Genuineness (honest communication), Unconditional positive regard (therapist remains supportive, non-judgmental) and Empathy (therapist understands issues from client’s point of view) (pg. 460). In following these three elements, client and therapist were working together equally and helped client become more aware of themselves and even feel more comfortable with their therapist and the idea of therapy. Some people don’t seek help because they feel therapy might be too intimidating for them or it’s a step that they fear having to take. I can agree with this, because from my personal experience, l had pushed off therapy for so long because l was afraid to admit that l needed it.

Behaviorism has been credited with providing clear predictions that can be scientifically tested and yield explanations that can be supported by evidence. For instance, in the application of Applied Behavioral Analysis in improving clients’ behaviors, the functions of individuals problematic behaviors can be evaluated and modified using behavior change principles including reinforcement. Similarly, behaviorism emphasizes the objective measurement of behaviors through providing clear and conceptual definitions, and its therapy is applicable to real life situations as in the case of anxiety. Conversely, studies incorporated into behaviorism allow for appropriate comparisons between animals and humans as in the Case of Watson’s, Thorndike’s and Pavlov’s studies respectively.