Psychodynamic Approach Therapy: Psychoanalysis Designed by Freud, it intends to make patients aware of unconscious feelings and thus deal

with the causes of abnormal behaviour. Unconscious feelings are as a result of repressed memories or unresolved conflicts from childhood. How it works? Therapists attempt to trace unconscious factors to their origins and then help the individuals deal with them Therapist used many techniques to uncover the repressed material and help the client deal with it: Free association o Patients express thoughts exactly as they occur o Each incident may then lead to other thoughts and memories o Role of therapist is to encourage some reflection on childhood and identify key themes and ideas which can be analysed later Therapist draws attention to some points and patient may resist o Freud believed these associations are determined by unconscious factors which can then be uncovered Freudian slips- saying a word when we meant another e.g. bed instead of bread Dream analysis o Freud believed dreams symbolised the material in the unconscious o Analysing content of dreams may help identify conflicts repressed in unconscious

Patients tend to meet up with therapist 4-5 times a week sometimes over a period of years in order to gain clarity of the behaviour and its causes. Evaluation Effectiveness: Bergin analysed data from 10,000 patients and found 80% found it beneficial compared to 65% benefiting from other approaches. o Bergin noted that length and intensity of sessions was a critical factor to success of treatments and since psychoanalysis is long itd produce better results o Tschuschke et al. found from study of 450 patients that the longer the treatment, more successful Can be good for depression and anxiety, not schizophrenia Support from other studies that early childhood affects later life o Kindler et al (1996) found that twins separated from a parent early in life were more prone to depression and to alcoholism later in life. Eysenck concluded that the therapy didnt work but in fact was worse than no treatment Expensive, long and patient must be keen to analyse past. Patient is vulnerable Ethical issues as could bring stress to patient, false memories and forced termination False memories- critics suggest that therapists are planning false memories into the patients mind as theres little evidence that early memories can be recalled. o (American Psychological Association ) APA suggests its rare for people to forget emotionally charged events like abuse which further strengthens this point that the memories are false