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Psychoanalytic Therapy Freud’s views continue to influence contemporary practice.Many of his basic concepts are still part of the foundation on which other theorists build and develop.Some extended the psychoanalytic model, others modified its concepts and procedures, and others emerged as a reaction against it. Freud initially shaped psychotherapy by calling attention to psychodynamic factors that motivate behavior, by focusing on the role of the unconscious, and by developing the first therapeutic procedures for understanding and modifying the structure of one’s basic character.Freud’s theory is a benchmark against which many other theories are measured.This chapter focuses on basic psychoanalytic concepts and …show more content…

Consciousness and Unconscious:are the keys to understanding behavior and the problems of personality.The unconscious cannot be studied directly but is inferred from behavior.This includes (1) dreams – symbolic representations of unconscious needs, wishes, and conflicts (2) slips of the tongue and forgetting, for example, a familiar name (3) posthypnotic suggestions (4) material derived from free-association techniques (5) material derived from projective techniques; and (6) the symbolic content of psychotic symptoms. According to Freud, the larger part of the mind exists below the surface of awareness.The unconscious stores all experiences, memories, and repressed material.Needs and motivations that are inaccessible or out of our awareness, are also outside the sphere of conscious control.Most psychological functioning exists in the out-of-awareness realm.The aim of psychoanalytic therapy is to make unconscious motives conscious. Unconscious processes are at the root of all forms of neurotic symptoms and behaviors.A “cure” is based on uncovering the meaning of symptoms, the causes of behavior, and

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