Table of contents:
- Introduction to the contributions of neo-psychoanalysis to clinical psychology
- Psychoanalysis and neopsychoanalysis and their authors
- Other authors of neopsicoanálsis and therapeutic strategies
- Fundamental principles of psychoanalysis
- Discussion
- Conclusions
Rating: 4 (1 vote) 1 comment Eden González Carrillo, José Gustavo Medina.... February 27, 2018
Since its inception, Psychoanalysis has been widely studied. It was initially created by Freud and throughout history it has been one of the most influential models for explaining human behavior through unconscious processes. Freud had several disciples, some of them (Adler, Jung) had differences with him and decided to create their own model of Psychoanalysis. The contributions of these and others of the followers of Freud like Horney, Sullivan and Erikson formed the bases of what today is known like neopsicoanalisis. The founders of neo-psychoanalysis in general renounce the sexual theory of neurosis proposed by Freud and concentrate on other aspects of the person. In PsicologíaOnline, with the present work, we make a review on neopsychoanalysis and its founders,We also present the contributions of neo-psychoanalysts to the field of clinical psychology. Keep reading and discover a widereview of neo-psychoanalysis and its contributions to clinical psychology.
You may also be interested in: Review of current treatments for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Index- Introduction to the contributions of neo-psychoanalysis to clinical psychology
- Psychoanalysis and neopsychoanalysis and their authors
- Other authors of neopsicoanálsis and therapeutic strategies
- Fundamental principles of psychoanalysis
- Discussion
- Conclusions
Introduction to the contributions of neo-psychoanalysis to clinical psychology
The purpose of this work is to expose to the scientific community the main features of the Neopsicoanalyst perspectives since the information on Neopsicoanalysis is scarce, sometimes excluding itself from the literature and the scientific field, despite the fact that the structure of current psychology has fundamentals psychoanalytics and aspects of the personality that were originally designed by Neopsicoanalysts. What are the contributions of Neopsicoanalisis to Clinical Psychology ? In this work it is pointed out that there are several aspects in the work of Neopsicoanalysts that can be considered as relevant contributions to Clinical Psychology, that is why this work emphasizes such aspects and we intend to make them visible for analysis.
Freud's contradictions with some of his disciples were the first historical step for the emergence of Neo-psychoanalysis. Among the first analysts to break with Freud and develop their own schools of thought are Alfred Adler and Carl G. Jung. Both were first important followers of Freud, Adler was president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and Jung president of the International Psychoanalytic Society. Both parted ways with Freudbecause they felt there was an overemphasis on sexual drives. For 10 years Adler was an active member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. However, in 1911, when he presented his ideas to the other members of this group, the response was so hostile that he had to leave it to form his own school of Individual Psychology. Adler placed greater emphasis on social urges and conscious thoughts rather than instinctual sexual urges and unconscious processes. He subsequently became interested in feelings of psychological inferiority and in compensatory efforts to mask or reduce these painful feelings. Adler viewed defenses as manifestations of compensatory efforts against feelings of inferiority associated with a childhood weakness,how the person tries to cope with those feelings becomes part of their lifestyle. Adler spoke of the will to power as an expression of a person's efforts to cope with feelings of weakness stemming from childhood. Adler's theory emphasizes the way in which people respond to feelings about themselves, how they respond to goals that guide their behavior toward the future, and how sibling birth order can influence sibling. psychological development.Adler's theory emphasizes how people respond to feelings about themselves, how they respond to goals that guide their behavior toward the future, and how sibling birth order can influence sibling. psychological development.Adler's theory emphasizes the way in which people respond to feelings about themselves, how they respond to goals that guide their behavior toward the future, and how sibling birth order can influence sibling. psychological development.
Jung separated from Freud in 1914, a few years after Adler, and developed his own school of thought called Analytical Psychology. Like Adler, Jung disagreed with what he felt was an overemphasis on sexuality. In fact, Jung viewed libido as a generalized life energy. Although sexuality is part of this basic energy, libido also includes other impulses for pleasure and creativity. Jung accepted Freud's emphasis on the unconscious but added the concept of the collective unconscious. According to Jung, people have stored inside their collective unconscious the cumulative experiences of previous generations. The collective unconscious, unlike the personal unconscious, is shared by all human beings as a result of common race.Jung points out that an important part of the collective unconscious is the universal images or symbols, known as archetypes. Jung emphasized the way in which people fight against the opposing forces within. He also claimed that there was a struggle between the male part (animus) and a female part (anima) of human beings.
Karen horneyShe was educated as a traditional analyst in Germany and came to the United States in 1932. Shortly thereafter she broke away from traditional psychoanalytic thought and developed her own theoretical orientation and psychoanalytic training program. Freud's statements regarding women made Horney think about the importance of cultural influence on neuroses. Horney's emphasis on neurotic functioning is on how individuals try to cope with basic anxiety, a child's feeling of being isolated and weak in a potentially hostile world. According to his theory of neurosis, in the neurotic person there is a conflict between the three ways of responding to this basic anxiety. These three types, or neurotic tendencies, are known as approaching, confronting, withdrawing.In the approach, the person tries to cope with anxiety by being overly concerned to be accepted, needed, and approved of. In confrontation, the person assumes that all people are hostile and that life is a fight against everyone. In withdrawal, the third component of the conflict, the person withdraws from other people in a neurotic act of separation. Although each neurotic person displays one or the other tendency as a special aspect of their personality, the problem is really that there is a conflict between the three tendencies in their effort to manage basic anxiety.In withdrawal, the third component of the conflict, the person withdraws from other people in a neurotic act of separation. Although each neurotic person displays one or the other tendency as a special aspect of their personality, the problem is really that there is a conflict between the three tendencies in their effort to manage basic anxiety.In withdrawal, the third component of the conflict, the person withdraws from other people in a neurotic act of separation. Although each neurotic person displays one or the other tendency as a special aspect of their personality, the problem is actually that there is a conflict between the three tendencies in their effort to manage basic anxiety.
Harry sullivanHe never had direct contact with Freud and was the one who most emphasized the role of social and interpersonal forces in human development. In fact, his theory is known as the Theory of Interpersonal Psychiatry. Sullivan placed great importance on the early relationships between the child and the mother, as well as the development of anxiety and a sense of self. The mother can communicate anxiety in the first interactions with the child. For Sullivan, the "self" has a social origin and develops from the feelings that are experienced in contact with others and reflected appreciations or perceptions that the child makes of the way in which he is valued or appreciated by others. The self is in relation to the experience of anxiety as opposed to security,therefore there is the good me that is associated with pleasurable experiences, the bad me, that is associated with pain and threats to safety, and the non-me, or the part of the self that is rejected because it is associated with intolerable anxiety.
Erik eriksonOne of the leading psychoanalysts of the ego, describing development in psychosocial rather than merely sexual terms, Erikson emphasized the psychosocial as well as the instinctive bases for personality development; he extended the stages of development to include the entire life cycle and articulated the major psychological problems faced in those later stages; He recognized that people look to the future as well as the past and the way in which they construct their future can be as significant a part of personality as the way in which they interpret their past. Erikson developed a psychosocial theory that emphasizes mutual adaptation between the individual and the environment, underlining the role that Freud assigned to the self, but provides it with other qualities such as the need for confidence, hope,dexterity, intimacy, love and integrity. He viewed the self as a creative force that allows one to handle problems effectively. Erikson considers development to be a life-long process, his point of view reflects his concern for the interpersonal and cultural needs of the developing individual. It describes a life cycle of stages, each one of which presents the individual with the tasks to be carried out. Failure to resolve conflicts in a particular stage makes coping more difficult in later stages. Erikson's stages range from acquiring a sense of trust in others to self-satisfaction and achievement, as well as a sense of order and meaning in life that develops over the years.He was more optimistic than Freud in his belief that the ego could dominate both instinctual drives and environmental challenges, resulting in a life of relative satisfaction. Erikson was particularly interested in a person's ability to achieve both mastery and creativity.
Among the most followed reworkings of psychoanalysis today is that of Jacques Lacanwho bases his theory on structuralist linguistics by stating that the unconscious is constructed as a language. With Lacan, a new bridge is built between psychoanalysis and linguistics that revolutionizes psychological theory and practice, especially psychotherapy; This is why some theorists consider him the most important psychoanalyst after Freud. Wilhelm Reich also requires special mention, among his contributions to a new psychoanalytic vision of the psyche are:his interpretation of neurosis as derived from a reactivation of libido in his theory of the vital energy of the orgone or bions and the use of psychophysical experiments and the creation of teams to demonstrate his theories and transform the mental states of the subjects into replacement of traditional psychoanalytic verbal therapies, as well as, for example, its so-called "vegetotherapy". It is also necessary to mention because of its importance for a psychoanalytic interpretation of infantile psychic development, the work of Ana Freud who can be considered as the founder of infantile psychoanalysis and Melanie Klein who emphasized the importance of play for the knowledge of the infantile unconscious and the role determinant of the mother in the psyche of minors.Subsequently, a strong Neopsicoanalytic movement develops that reaches our days in multiple schools and theories that carry out their own elaborations from Freudian notions about the psyche such as the unconscious, instincts, sexuality, individual experience and traumatic experiences. (particularly in early childhood), personality dynamics, normal and pathological, psychoanalytic method, etc.the normal and the pathological, the psychoanalytic method, etc.the normal and the pathological, the psychoanalytic method, etc.
Regarding Freud's contributions to psychology, Antonio Damasio affirms: "As the years go by and we accumulate more data on the functioning of the brain, people will increasingly realize that neurology confirms many of Freud's ideas". (cited in Paniagua, 2004). In 1958, Geoffrey Gorer wrote of the “diluted influence” of psychoanalysis in our culture: “Thanks to Freud's work, the weak and the disinherited are commonly treated with care and compassion, and with an attempt at understanding that constitutes one of the few changes. of which we do not have to be ashamed in the climate of opinion of the present century ”(quoted in Waelder, 1960). With the "diluted influence",This British anthropologist was referring precisely to the repercussions of Freud's ideas in fields other than the clinical application of psychoanalysis. Over the years there has been a debate about Neopsicoanalytic theories, and according to Ramirez, J. (2006), most of the texts produced by some analysts reflect an attitude very close to the devaluation that many theorists of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies attribute to the psychoanalytic clinic for not throwingreflects an attitude very close to the unworthiness that many theorists of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies attribute to psychoanalytic clinicalreflects an attitude very close to the devaluation that many theorists of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies attribute to the psychoanalytic clinic for notempirically demonstrable data.
Psychoanalysis and neopsychoanalysis and their authors
Ramirez J. (2006) also points out that over time psychoanalysis has been taken as an antagonist of the scientific procedure, since its main substrate is on the side of the immaterial and away from the consciousness linked to reason.
It is difficult to summarize the advances that have been achieved in psychoanalytic therapy in recent years because they are so many and so varied that many times they have come to constitute theoretical and therapeutic systems by themselves. It does not refer to those who from the beginning did not agree with its basic postulates of Freudian psychoanalysis (Jung, Adler, Rank). Explicitly, today it is accepted that the term "psychoanalysis" is reserved for those models that are based on the discoveries of Sigmund Freud. With this consideration in mind, a certain (very arbitrary) classification of the advances and extensions that psychoanalysis has had can be attempted, depending on:
- The age of the patient and the type of pathology: regarding the first, psychoanalysis is currently applied to practically the entire age range: children (A. Freud, Jelin), adolescents (Bos), adults and young people (who always has been the main group) and even the elderly. Regarding the type of pathology, it has already been indicated that, nowadays, psychoanalysis is done with most psychopathologists, apart from neuroses: psychotic (Rosenfeld, Searles), borderline personality disorders (Kernberg), narcissistic disorders (Kohut, Kernberg), psychopathic personalities, sexual dysfunctions, psychosomatic disorders and even some addictions (as a complement to other treatments), among others.
- Treatment modality: in addition to individual therapy, psychoanalysis is applied to couples (Dicks, Willi, Laemaire), groups (Bion, Foulkes, Anzieu, Kaës, Yalom), families, educational systems (Pichón Reviére, Bleger), institutions (Schavartein), etc.
- The element of the theory that stands out: the psychology of the ego (Hartmann, Lowenstein, Kris), the theory of object relations (Klei, Fairbasir, Balint, Kernberg), narcissism (Kohut, the process of separation-individuation (Mahler), language and the signifier (Lacan), among others.
Making a review on the contributions of Neo-psychoanalysis to the field of clinical psychology we can start from the research of Alfred Adler and William Glasser, Adler(1870-1937), Austrian neo-Freudian psychoanalyst, known for his approach to Individual Psychology and William Glasser (1925-), American psychiatrist, humanist creator of Reality Therapy and Choice Therapy. These two theorists made proposals on the explanations of criminal behavior and the aspects to be taken into account by psychologists and other researchers in order to understand this global threat. Both Adler and Glasser made observations from jails and mental hospitals. Adler has been considered as a forerunner of humanism in European psychology, while Glasser became famous with his controversial views on the criminal personality.Adler is one of the first theorists to raise the particularity of conscious decision of the self and to postulate conscious responsibility for decisions. Adler's vision was of a composite but functionally unitary personality. He gave great importance to the social processes of the person and where the human being is born with a great feeling of inferiority that motivates him consciously or unconsciously to fight for his improvement.
Feist and Feist(cited in Vásquez, 2008) show a longitudinal study carried out by Douglas Daugherty, Michael Murphy and Justin Paugh (2001) that confirms the relationship between low levels of social interest and criminal behavior. Although the researchers differentiate between two types of criminals found in the prisons they studied, those of low social interest and those of normal social interest, they found that those of low social interest, upon being released, tended to reoffend more frequently as long as they were released. that those who showed a good level of social interest showed better adaptive tendencies, reintegrating into society (work, family, community) and avoiding falling back into prisons. An interesting and meticulous study on the crime of the seventies in Guadalajara, Mexico (Jiménez, 2006),coincides with the demographic characteristics indicated by Adler related to the effect of the failed sense of community. It was found that most of the incarcerated people resided in areas with few resources and services, many of them came from other States and were living temporarily (neighborhoods, migrants) in Guadalajara with difficulties of community integration, and most had very low schooling (48% did not exceed primary education, only 16% started, but did not finish, secondary school education, 20% had no schooling at all, and only 8% had a bachelor's degree).Many of them came from other states and were living temporarily (residents, migrants) in Guadalajara with difficulties of community integration, and most had very low schooling (48% did not exceed primary education, only 16% started, but did not finished, basic secondary education, 20% had no schooling at all, and only 8% had a bachelor's degree).Many of them came from other states and were living temporarily (residents, migrants) in Guadalajara with difficulties of community integration, and most had very low schooling (48% did not exceed primary education, only 16% started, but did not finished, basic secondary education, 20% had no schooling at all, and only 8% had a bachelor's degree).
On the other hand, Dr. Bernardo Kliksberg(2001) in his article entitled The growth of crime in Latin America: An urgent issue, indicates another social condition, also indicated by Adler as a predisposing factor to criminality and neuroticism, referring to working conditions. In his book, The Meaning of Life (1935), Adler identified some specific characteristics of the criminal personality, suggesting a typology of deviant behavior. In summary, the cause of criminality in Adler responds to three central postulates of his theory of Individual Psychology: the poorly managed feeling of inferiority, the misguided need for power, and the failed or weak sense of community. Failure is a disastrous psychological and social experience that produces unhealthy lifestyles.It is useless to continue working with the isolated person in their context without executing models of social transformation.
GlasserFor his part, he considers that the human being is responsible for finding appropriate satisfaction of both needs and cannot be considered a victim of anything or anyone, if he does not assume this responsibility, he is responsible even for his deficiency, a matter that has been very controversial since they contradict the policy public, judicial and forensic of irresponsibility victimizing the mentally ill. The human being learns to be free to the extent that he learns to exercise his choices and assume the responsibility of looking for the key person in his life with whom he can channel and satisfy his emotional needs. In general Adler and Glasser propose the following perspectives: The importance of the processes of consciousness, the responsibility approach, the importance of the decision-making process, the humanism approach.
Méndez, Ibáñez and Ramos(1999) show in a study with two patients with depression two paths that the psychoanalytic model can take, both treatments are carried out within the framework of a Mental Health Service of the Community of Madrid with a frame of a weekly session and a duration limited to one year. In one of the patients, the therapeutic objective was to try to understand the patient by working on the specific theme that appears in his speech, that is, seeking to reduce his persecutory guilt by offering a model of a superego mandate that is less demanding or more in line with the sense of reality. In the other patient, the objective was to open a framework in which the symptomatic complaint could be exposed without question, trying to articulate it with the rest of the personality components in a double scope: articulation with oneself.This study shows that many patients do not have the ability to represent causes and effects, attribute and experience intentionality to their behavior or feelings, which is why Psychoanalytic therapeutic work does not focus on these patients to reveal meanings, but to create them in the framework of the therapeutic relationship, the therapist's interventions focused on helping the patient to experience the meaning itself, dispelling doubts about the validity of their experience. The current psychotherapeutic work has different therapeutic approaches, however it also defends the implantation of combined or multidimensional treatments necessary the more serious the psychopathological disorders to be treated are.attributing and experiencing intentionality to their behavior or feelings, for which Psychoanalytic therapeutic work does not focus on these patients to reveal meanings, but to create them within the framework of the therapeutic relationship, the therapist's interventions were focused on helping the patient to experience the meaning itself dispelling doubts about the validity of its experience. The current psychotherapeutic work has different therapeutic approaches, however it also defends the implantation of combined or multidimensional treatments necessary the more serious the psychopathological disorders to be treated are.attributing and experiencing intentionality to their behavior or feelings, for which Psychoanalytic therapeutic work does not focus on these patients to reveal meanings, but to create them within the framework of the therapeutic relationship, the therapist's interventions were focused on helping the patient to experience the meaning itself, dispelling doubts about the validity of his experience. The current psychotherapeutic work has different therapeutic approaches, however it also defends the implementation of combined or multidimensional treatments necessary the more serious the psychopathological disorders to be treated are.Rather than creating them within the framework of the therapeutic relationship, the therapist's interventions focused on helping the patient to experience the meaning itself, dispelling doubts about the validity of their experience. The current psychotherapeutic work has different therapeutic approaches, however it also defends the implementation of combined or multidimensional treatments necessary the more serious are the psychopathological disorders to be treated.Instead of creating them within the framework of the therapeutic relationship, the therapist's interventions focused on helping the patient to experience the meaning itself, dispelling doubts about the validity of their experience. The current psychotherapeutic work has different therapeutic approaches, however it also defends the implantation of combined or multidimensional treatments necessary the more serious the psychopathological disorders to be treated are.The current psychotherapeutic work has different therapeutic approaches, however it also defends the implantation of combined or multidimensional treatments necessary the more serious the psychopathological disorders to be treated are.The current psychotherapeutic work has different therapeutic approaches, however it also defends the implementation of combined or multidimensional treatments necessary the more serious are the psychopathological disorders to be treated.
Margareth Mahler's research on early childhood has provided a detailed understanding of the processes of individuation and early identity formation. His contributions to the clinical field have provided more precise information on the development of object relations. The relevance of Mahler's (1975) studies is due, in large part, to his methodological strategy, in which direct observation of children was always connected with casuistic inquiry and theoretical interpretation. This allowed him to avoid a limited empiricist model.
The study Valadez (2006) on the relationship of emotion with cognition in creativity: the case study of Carl Gustav Jung reveals some of the contributions of this to the current psychology. Jung was introduced to his own unconscious world and this is how he configures his theory about the collective unconscious, Jung structured his own experience as a scientific project. With this it follows that there is an inseparable process between theory, experience and method, a hallmark that has been characteristic of Neopsicoanalysts. This extends even beyond cognition and with this it is endorsed that emotions are equally important insofar as they become a way of knowledge; and can show the process of setting up a new symbolic field.
For Lacan(1966) in "Science and Truth", the subject of the cogito inaugurated the path of modern science, which is why this step has been necessary for the emergence of psychoanalysis itself; while the subject on which it operates is the subject of science. Lacan proposes that science itself gives way to the creation of the idea of the unconscious because from the void that it generates through language, it is that the unconscious spoke from that place, understanding that science by expelling the subject relegates it to a A function that only by considering itself an effect of language is that it can account for its existence as an effect of that void. Lacan (1964), affirms that psychoanalytic therapy will be understood as a concerted action by man, which gives him the possibility of treating the real through the symbolic,consisting precisely of making people speak. There is a point within the very act of speaking that can evoke the depths of each subject, elucidating a relationship between word and desire, via affect. In contrast, there are the actions of some specialists, who pay little attention to saying about each "patient".
In a more recent research, Ramírez (2007) makes an approach on psychoanalysis and special education with children; Within his contribution he mentions that for Pernicone (2001), it is essential to know how to listen to the child with special educational needs, since he has a need and his own right to express, as a subject, his suffering and to be treated as something more than a mere object-body. For this reason, there must be a special psychoanalysis for these diagnosed special needs, which adapts its clinic and approaches to the demands of the particular language emitted by the subject who screams to be cared for. Ranieri(2000) mentions that to speak of the intervention of a psychoanalyst within the constitution of the subject, the example given by the analytical clinic with children is enough, which acts from the construction of the game scene. This act, which not only accompanies and entertains, constitutes a model of expression (in some cases the only one), since it includes the approach of its close relationship with fantasy. Thus, it is possible to speak of a language that is expressed in such a daily way that it is often neglected.
Other authors of neopsicoanálsis and therapeutic strategies
Melanie Klein works on the conception of play in her article The personification of play in children (1929), where she makes explicit the way in which play serves as a representation of the child's fantasies, desires and unconscious experiences that cannot be transmitted with words. This means that the anguish generated in the development process becomes a subsequent triggering symptom of a disturbance in the child's life, so that the analysis ready to listen to the language of the game allows a release of this anguish, even when there are problems with symbolism. For Klein the game is a new expression of an archaic symbolism, a fact that could even explain the problems of expression, language and socialization. This leads to conceiving, together withAberasturi (2004), a technique within the clinic in which the boy can contribute a part of his expression freely in the game and where the therapist observes the type of game and the roles where the subject is located, and then perform oral or in-game performances. This, as long as there are repetitive games and the language of each subject is taken into account, so that it can emerge freely as an autonomous individual. All these techniques are currently applied in therapy with children and adolescents in the field of clinical psychology.
Another of the most outstanding authors of recognized Neopsychoanalysis is Heinz Kohut. Kohut's contributions have constituted the so-called School of Self Psychology, which today brings together many followers of various disciplines, including psychoanalysts, psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors and educators, from different parts of the world. In 1977 he published his book The analysis of the self , regarding this concept; Kohut defines it as "a psychoanalytic abstraction of the low level (close to experience), that is, as the content of the psychic apparatus". That is, it is something that subjects can describe of themselves as an experience of a feeling and a cognitive representation that encompasses the feeling of being a person in time.
The fundamental pathology of the narcissistic personalityIt lies, Kohut tells us, in the fact that neither the self nor the archaic narcissistic objects are sufficiently cathectized that they are exposed to temporary fragmentation. Or, they may be sufficiently well cathectized but not integrated with the rest of their personality, thus depriving the mature self of narcissistic cathexes. In this way, the vulnerability consciousness of the self is what generates the anguish of narcissists. The main source of his discomfort is the psychological inability to regulate self-esteem and keep it at normal levels. This discomfort manifests itself in the therapeutic clinic with the following transitory symptoms: Subtle but penetrating feelings of emptiness and depression,which are relieved as soon as the narcissistic transference is established or intensified if the relationship with the analyst is disturbed.
The patient sometimes has the impression that it is not completely real or has blunted emotions. He does his job without enthusiasm, he gets carried away by routine and has no initiative. These problems arise when the narcissistic transference has been broken. The external self-esteem provider self-object has been lost. In these cases, it refers to narcissistic transference, insofar as the sense of self-esteem is established and sustained through the bond with the therapist. Kohut, believed that psychological disorders occur when there are significant deficiencies in the structure of the self. Undesirable early experiences can interfere with self development.
Aksenchuck(2006) show that in a country like France in current times where there are campaigns against depression, the government considers that the best method to counteract this condition is the pharmacological one and that psychoanalysis is the least viable option, since in a world of vertigo and extreme competitiveness; For everything that goes wrong, it is necessary to find hyper-fast recipes. Aksenchuck (2006) compared to behavioral therapies for which the singularity of the subject's condition matters little or nothing, since the recipe to apply is always the same: suggestion; proposes psychoanalysis as a therapy that: does not settle for non-lasting symptomatic improvements, does not imply a return to a previous state, nor does it consist of forcing the subject to agree with universal health ideals,maturation or adaptation to 'the' reality.
Blatt (2009) points out that there are different types of patients and that highly self-critical, perfectionist and introjective patients show a significantly greater gain in long-term intensive psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Individuals excessively preoccupied with questions of self-definition and self-worth usually have the intellectual resources and self-reflection capacities necessary to constructively engage in long-term intensive psychoanalytic treatment.
Blatt (1992) suggests that substantially longer and more intensive treatment may be required for highly self-critical, introjective patients to allow them to establish a therapeutic relationship and begin to change the deeply rooted negative mental representations of self and others. Introjective patients who are preoccupied with issues of autonomy and control are also likely to react negatively to arbitrary limitations in the therapeutic process and to respond more constructively to a treatment process in which they participate in deciding when to end. These findings are consistent with those from a recent survey by Consumer Reports (Seligman 1995) which found that patients reported greater therapeutic gain in an open-ended treatment process.
Research carried out in 2004 by Alonso, mentions that psychotherapy is the interaction between theory, technique and practice, however it must be flexible and not standardized for all people, for this reason it is considered that there is no identical therapy for each one of the people, rather Jung proposes an approach in which through experience, make a contact in which an attempt is made to know in each individual case the dreams, the healing tendencies to activate them so that they are used and lead to the subject to self-healing.
In the therapy contributed by Jung. Neuroses do not have a negative connotation, as they are perceived as an opportunity to achieve creative transformation. He visualized the following therapeutic strategies (Alonso 2004):
- The process to achieve individuation.- This is achieved by differentiating the self from the shadow, the anima, animus, and the self, avoiding identification with them and thereby achieving a "Completion" and integrity.
- The work with the person and the shadow, the anima and animus.- from which the subject manages to manifest both its accepted and unacceptable parts. This phase consists of a moment of painful recognition before which the patient must be helped to learn to use him for self-transformation.
- Dissolution of complexes.- This strategy seeks for the person to avoid identification or projection and to be able to identify and give voice to repressed aspects in order to integrate the opposites from the affective activity that is achieved when the event that originated the complex is experienced.
- The interpretation of symbols by means of dreams.- This interpretation will allow to know the cause and purpose of the dream, in addition it will facilitate the knowledge of aspects of the subject's reality that are being compensated when he dreams. This is achieved through free association of the dream, taking care not to move away from the symbols found in its content.
- The use of auxiliary methods such as active imagination that consists in carrying out a dialogue where the rational is combined with the irrational.
- The didactic analysis.- This of transcendental importance from Jung's perspective, since it implies the need for every analyst to be analyzed before analyzing other people.
Fundamental principles of psychoanalysis
The Jungian analysis but does not propose stereotyped techniques is considered as a process that must be learned and taught to patients so that they implement it on their own and avoid dependence on the therapist.
Lama (2001) points out that in psychoanalysis the object of study is "the patient's verbal material that expresses his subjective version of the world", since, "what is analyzed is not the patient's life, but his psyche". And the study of the psyche, conscious and unconscious, is the task that best distinguishes psychoanalysis from other therapies. Lama (2001) states that research with brain imaging techniques has shown that the cerebellum plays an important role from the birth of the child and throughout the first year of life. The cerebellum constitutes the substrate of the mnemic systemmore primitive, which preserves and organizes the most archaic memories, especially those related to motor experience, but also those originated from other sensory modalities. With the first experiences, the cerebellum creates maps or plans of the self and the surrounding world that allow the development of a model of self-in-the-world. What happens when the cerebellum connects with the thalamus and the parietal cortex in the course of the first year is important.
As these structures mature, activate their own memory systems and are able to create their own maps of experience, the previous cerebellar maps are not destroyed. Not only are they not destroyed, but the information from the maps mapped by the cerebellum persists, is shared and influences the development of the new thalamocortical maps / representations. In other words, the most archaic memories are going to be transferred to higher centers and almost nothing of our biography is going to be lost. Therefore, the new model of self-in-the-world, let's call it "cortico-limbic", which will house complex representations of the self, the world and the relationships between them, will not be created from scratch but under the influence of previous cerebellar experience. In fact,the cerebellum continues to exert some control over the cognitive functions of the adult and, therefore, it is no longer considered a mere organ for controlling movement. In this sense, the cerebellar mnemic systems are the maps of the CNS necessary to be able to "map".
From the point of view of brain functioning, an event of capital importance occurs during the oedipal stage: interhemispheric myelination begins to be sufficient for a remarkable exchange of information to take place. Although this interhemispheric myelination is still incomplete at 9 or 10 years of life, during the third year the interhemispheric relationships change dramatically and the left hemisphere - the language hemisphere - becomes dominant over the right hemisphere. Therefore, the beginning of the Oedipal stage, a psychologically and neuroanatomically critical evolutionary period, would coincide with a radical change in information processing.The maturation of the CNS would allow the cerebral hemispheres to function in a more coordinated way and would consolidate the functioning of the mnemic systems related to the achievement of a cohesive self. The success of the transition from the pre-Oedipal to the Oedipal stage would depend on the brain's ability to coordinate various interhemispheric functions, including the integration of functioning according to the primary process -right hemisphere- with functioning according to the secondary process -left hemisphere.the integration of functioning according to the primary process -right hemisphere- with functioning according to the secondary process -left hemisphere.the integration of functioning according to the primary process -right hemisphere- with functioning according to the secondary process -left hemisphere.
Another consequence of the interhemispheric collaboration would be the implementation of new and more mature -neurotic-defense mechanisms. In fact, repression would be nothing more than the result of a certain blockage of interhemispheric exchange, which could be verified by neuroimaging techniques. Psychic conflict would only be possible when the different functional units of the brain were connected, otherwise archaic schemes or patterns could coexist even if they were mutually incompatible.
Physiological and psychological maturation can take a different rhythm in a particular child with respect to the average, for example in height, without implying pathology. It does not seem that the oedipal drive dynamics can be experienced and elaborated identically. A "bihemispheric" brain would put at the disposal of the psychic apparatus a series of very necessary sublimatory mechanisms in the oedipal setting. In the event of a delay in myelination, interhemispheric collaboration would require that the shared information continue to transit through archaic structures of the CNS. In this way, the risk that primitive cognitions, affects or behaviors permeate Oedipal object relations and conflicts would seem evident.
These hypotheses, although based on empirical findings, are still speculative, but they are a sample of the type of relationship that can be established between neuroscience and psychoanalysis during the just begun XXI century.
In many of the great cities of the world, interdisciplinary research networks have been formed that unite the fields of neurology and psychoanalysis, and which have given rise to the International Neuropsychoanalytic Society (Founded in London in 2000).
Mark Solms, a neuropsychologist at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) in a recent article published in the journal Research and Science, entitled Back Freud points out that neurologists are finding evidence to support some of Freud's theories and that, at the same time, they are connecting the dots about the mechanisms underlying the mental processes he described, he also claims that neurologists are realizing that the Biological descriptions of the brain are more coherent if they are integrated into the psychological theories that Freud enunciated a century ago confirming the existence of unconscious mental processes, finally affirming that neurologists believe that the instinctual mechanisms that govern human motivation are even more primitive that what Freud imagined when he spoke of the id, Over the years, psychoanalysis has developed towards an enormous plurality of different theoretical conceptions and techniques; In 1979, Joseph E., former President of the International Psychoanalytic Association, concluded that although there are different conceptualizations, psychoanalysts are united around three fundamental principles:
- There are unconscious psychic processes and barriers that oppose your awareness.
- There is a continuity in psychic life.
- There is a psychic energy that comes from somatic sources, but that is different from them.
The contributions of Neo-psychoanalysis, although due to its variability of approaches, conceptions and its intense historical evolution during more than half a century, it is difficult to establish generalizations about the characteristic features, but in a summarized way they can be distinguished:
His contemplation of social and cultural processes, including education as personality-forming elements and / or triggers of intrapersonal and / or interpersonal conflicts.
Deepening of the problems of human existence (how man should live and what he should do), moving in this way, from the strictly psychological in its clinical manifestation to the philosophical in its axiological, ethical aspects, etc.
Critical attitude to modern society that dehumanizes man and alienates his personality, producing a repressed, pathological subject, full of conflicts and traumas. It is therefore the function of neo-psychoanalysis to reform it in many cases to consider this way as the ideal way to modify this society itself, sickly and perverted.
Search for certain vital values that should be the object of psychological attention as a way of harmonizing personal interests with those of society.
Search for individuality and the volitional action of man in overcoming his conflicts and traumas, and for the development of his personality; Hence, terms such as self-development, self-determination, self-realization, self-reflection, mature personality, developed personality, etc. predominate in its categorical body.
For Gottingen (cited in Laverde, 2008) Psychoanalytic Therapy is: "A therapy that includes careful attention to the therapist-patient interaction, operates with a continuous use of interpretation and support interventions, tailored to the patient's needs". And according to Marzi (Cited in Laverde, 2008) the psychoanalytic clinical method is a condition that is activated through the link that the analyst-analysand couple supports, based on the primary concepts of psychoanalysis: dynamic unconscious, fantasy, transference, countertransference, which give a three-dimensional dimension to psychic reality.
The Neopsicoanaliticas therapies focus on reconstruction and interpretation, the psychoanalyst does not handle reconstructions and interpretations looking for the discovery scientist, but attempts to cause a number of effects desirable clinical, from the metapsychological changes starts in the unconscious conflicts of the analyzed.
Psychoanalytic theory and practice maintain that psychoanalytic work, and in particular interpretation, causes the unconscious contents, which keep conflicts active, to pass to the conscious sphere, to the secondary process or to the domain of the self, through the elimination of defenses / resistances and the appropriate insights.
Discussion
There are countless detractors of Freud who claim that his theories are nothing more than the end product of his personality self-analysis, Eynseck (2004) for example compiled and criticized all the studies on the effectiveness of psychoanalysis, reaching the conclusion that the Psychoanalytic treatment does not imply any improvement on the rate of spontaneous remission of neuroses. However, in the face of such devastating criticism, scientists of the stature of Antonio Damasio or Eric Kandel, two of the greats of current neuroscience, consider that biology could make great contributions to the understanding of the various unconscious mental processes and to the explanation of the therapeutic benefits of psychoanalysis; and that, in turn, psychoanalysis could help advance neuroscientific research; and also, that Freud's main ideas about the emotional world are consonant with the most advanced perspectives of current neuroscience. The debate continues open around the Neopsicoanalysts, who continue to do research incorporating new approaches within the same field.
Conclusions
Freud and his followers were undoubtedly influential figures of the twentieth century, their theories marked the frontiers of a before and after in the understanding of human nature, culture, art, religion. The contributions of Neopsicoanalysis have opened new paths in different spheres of human behavior and have been a strong stimulus for research. Psychoanalysis is the most popular of psychological doctrines, it is part of our culture, it has left its mark in fields as diverse as neurology, psychiatry, psychology, pedagogy, sociology, philosophy, hermeneutics, anthropology, history, religion, literature, art, cinema, etc.
Neopsicoanalysis is also in force more for its controversy than for the amount of contributions. Part of this is due to the fact that the scientific community has pigeonholed it in pseudosciences, thereby losing its identity and essence. Despite extensive claims to the contrary, it appears to be clear that Neo-psychoanalysis continues to make vital contributions to contemporary understanding of the nature and etiology of various types of psychopathology.and in turn, these contributions favor a better understanding of the dynamics of the therapeutic process. Taking into account the review that we made of the contributions of Psychoanalysis, we consider that it is necessary to evaluate the stages of the course of therapy in the Neopsicoanalytic approach and do more research in this area so that the techniques are reformulated, thereby reaching a more acceptable level in the clinical field.
And with regard to the therapeutic process, we consider that the application of psychoanalytic knowledge must evolve into different forms of psychotherapy that can be relatively brief and focused, breaking the scheme of the long and arduous treatment of the couch. It is necessary for current Neopsicoanalysts to focus on establishing a new conceptual framework for current psychology that allows to complete the task begun by Freud where the clinical field and Psychoanalysis are reconciled.
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