Psychotherapy Then and Now
By ecrivan, 12th Jul 2010 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutHealthAlternative Medicine
some thoughts on the rationale for psychotherapy how people choose alternative forms of therapy and more
Psychotherapy In Society
Psychoanalysis plays a part in reforming how modern man saw himself outside religious moral contexts. In the beginning psychoanalysis must have just been a method of understanding the unconscious motivations to behavioral expressions. In the beginning this method of analysis was seen as a way of shedding light on the mind’s disorders at an individual basis without concerning society as a whole. When the general population began to learn that Freud’s method of analysis was not merely for mad people in need of proper brain functioning, it rose in importance as something beyond its clinical aspects.
Psychology was influenced by pre-Christian thought, projected its army of negative entities that were destructive to the human spirit. Man’s relationship to society was viewed in the context of Christian virtues before the advent if the psychoanalytic theory. The method of ridding the person from obsessions and these thoughts in general were relegated to pagan rituals such as self-beating and fasting. The inquisition became one of the most austere institutions that reflected the bias of Catholic thought, as the egoism of people in power knew how to persecute others based on less popular rituals and values. There was no self-assessment as to how other cultures could have different means of expressing their traditions.
Psychoanalytic thought meant an end to the Christian control over explaining these traditions. In other words since Christianity meant obedience to a certain ethic and values, Freud’s analysis meant that people would learn their lives were opposed to the religious dogma; the nature of life could be questioned and was not just a projection of puritan ways. It turned out that most of what we do consciously was understood to be dictated by unconscious stimuli, something that the conscious person would not readily recognize. It was Freud who determined the effect that the subconscious had on the real world. Much of the actions done during the person’s waking state were affected by events.
Recently in the early eighties, the psychiatric hospital was opened up in Trieste and its patients were permitted to disperse. There were allowed to mingle with the general population although they could have had continued psychiatric care and counseling. The logic was that the surrounding real milieu would be a better cure for them compared to the doctor’s couch. Having seen one or two around fruit carts of the city’s markets, one wonders whether this alone would be sufficient for them to be reintegrated. Obviously one hoped the institution’s founder would be conscientious of reintegration although he was found wandering through the city shirtless on occasion.
Cost issues have lately stimulated the funding of cognitive related therapies (CBT ) rather than the use of the psychoanalytical approach. CBT is successful because perception can help the patient just as well as recounting your history over time and getting the doctor make analogies of your past behavior and current status as is performed in psychoanalysis. CBT works best for anxiety related disorders where the person is trained to think and perceive objects that cause stress, differently.
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