There are many different types of therapies or psychological methods used to
alleviate problems. First, there are therapies that emphasize the value of
gaining insight to personal problems. Then there are behavior therapies and
cognitive therapies, which are used to directly change troublesome actions and
thoughts. Two therapies I will be describing are rational-emotive behavior
therapy and psychoanalysis.
According to author Dennis Coon of Introduction to Psychology,
“Rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) attempts to change or remove
irrational beliefs that cause emotional problems.” Albert Ellis states the
basic idea of rational-emotive behavior is easy as ABC. He assumes that people
become unhappy and develop self-defeating habits because they have unrealistic
or faulty beliefs.
Ellis analyzes problems in this way: The letter A stands for an activating
experience, which the person assumes to be the cause of C, an emotional
consequence. For example, a person who is rejected (the activating experience) feels
depressed, threatened, or hurt (the consequence). Rational-emotive therapy,
however, shows that the real problem comes between A and C. In between is B,
the patient’s unrealistic beliefs.
There are many irrational or unrealistic beliefs that we all tend to hold. For
instance, certain people I must deal with are thoroughly bad and should be
severely blamed and punished for. This could lead to “The old man next door is
such a pain. I’m going to play my stereo even louder the next time he
complains.” Another irrational belief is it is awful and upsetting when things
are not the way I would very much like them to be. For example, “I should have
gotten a B in that class. The teacher doesn’t like me.” Rational-emotive
behavior therapy holds that events do not cause us to have feelings. We feel as
we do because of our beliefs.
Psychoanalysis resolves internal conflicts that lead to emotional suffering.
Because of the huge amounts of time and money it requires, psychoanalysts have
become rare. Four basic techniques Freud relied on to uncover the roots of
psychoanalysis are free association, dream analysis, analysis of resistance,
and analysis of transference.
During psychoanalysis, the patient engages in free association, by saying
whatever comes to mind. They must speak without concern for whether the ideas
are painful, embarrassing, or illogical. Dream analysis is also considered a
good way to tap the unconsciousness. Freud felt that forbidden desires and
unconscious feelings are more freely expressed in dreams. Then there is
analysis of resistance where the analyst becomes aware of resistances, or
blockages in the flow of ideas, and he or she brings them to the patient’s
awareness so they can be dealt with realistically. Finally, there is analysis
of transference, which the patient may act as if the analyst is the rejecting
father, former lover, or whoever the patient is feeling anger towards. All of
these techniques are used in psychoanalysis today.
Both rational-emotive behavior and psychoanalysis help the patients recognize
their problem and deal with it. The world today should be lucky and take
advantage of the many different types of therapies we are able to choose from.
These are just two of the many we are able to have.