Essay Sample on Psychoanalytic Therapy: Exploring Past Experiences for Mental Well-Being

Introduction

Psychoanalytic Therapy is a type of treatment or therapy that is based on the theories developed by Sigmund Freud, specifically for patients who never responded to the medical or psychological treatments that were available during his time. The therapy is based on the notion that there is a causal relationship between mental development in the current setting of a person, his needs and behavior, his desires and wishes, and past experiences. The therapy offers a means to investigate elements of the mind that are unconscious as well as bring a memory that is repressed back into the conscious mind. Also, Psychoanalytic therapy was developed based on the existence of unconscious conflicts, which form the base of psychological issues. It suggests that symptoms can be minimized by bringing the unconscious conflicts into awareness by asking the patient about his or her past experiences. Potential beneficiaries of this therapy are individuals with emotional trauma, depression, personality disorders, relationship issues, and emotional struggle.

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The goal of the therapy was to make patients gain insight through helping them turn their unconscious motivations and thoughts to become conscious. Psychoanalytic therapy changed the behavior of patients by releasing repressed experiences and emotions. It has a cathartic that is a healing experience that helps cure patients. It applies mostly to stressed individuals as the therapy will reduce the symptoms of the stress replacing it with more neurotic symptoms. In the process of the therapy, both the therapist and client work together to look at how the early memories, emotions, and experiences from childhood affected the relationships, thinking, and behavior of the patient in adulthood.

The change of behavior is instituted by therapists who apply several techniques to encourage patients to develop more insights into the symptoms and their behavior. Because the patients will open up and narrate about their past experiences, there will be behavioral changes as they will no longer feel the same as at first. For patients with self-destructive behavioral patterns, psychoanalytic therapy will reflect how the behaviors developed and from the patient will be advised of how the behavior can be changed to good behavior.

Psychoanalytic therapy changes the behavior of patients through improvement in the quality of life, significant improvement in symptoms from the past, and an enhanced sense of well-being. In the process of the therapy, patients become more cooperative and comfortable to face the issues that disturb them, and they are more likely to better understand their behavior, motives which will initiate the healing process.

More so, the change of behavior happens from tapping into their unconscious mind by gaining better knowledge of their subconscious mind leading to the acquisition of insight into some internal motivators, which drives to a large extend the behavior and thoughts of the patient. The changes in this way work towards changing some behaviors that are destructive or negative.

The current state of a patient is connected with the past by searching for patterns that are recurrent or any past event that contributes to the current state of the patient. The whole process uses the fundamental drives inside the patient to exert a moderating influence through the conscious or ego-mind to the superego, which represents the conscious behavior, feelings, and thoughts that are external reality. Generally, behavioral changes in psychoanalytic therapy are through the struggle for dominance represented by three elements, such as the id, ego, and superego, that takes place within every patient to attain a fresh viewpoint.

Psychoanalytic therapy is considered to be a very lengthy process that might take some sessions to complete because of defense mechanisms from the patients who do not fully open up about their past experiences. Also, it takes a long time due to the inaccessibility of various deterministic forces that operate in the unconscious mind.

References

Kachele, F. L., Leuzinger-Bohleber, M., Mertens, W., Rudolf, G., Schlosser, A. M., Springer, A., & Windaus, E. Psychoanalytic Therapy. Retrieved from http://www.techniques-psychotherapiques.org/Actualites/Annexes/PsyAssoAll.pdf

Sanville, J. B. (2013). The playground of psychoanalytic therapy. Routledge.

Stolorow, R. D. (2012). The renewal of humanism in psychoanalytic therapy. Psychotherapy, 49(4), 442. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027053