Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T00:17:38.670Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Psychodynamic psychotherapy

from Psychology, health and illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

Jo-Anne Carlyle
Affiliation:
Tavistock Clinic
Susan Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
Get access

Summary

Overview

What sets the psychodynamic psychotherapies apart from other traditions of psychological therapy is centrality of a dynamic unconscious. It is not only taken as fact that there are large parts of our psychological life of which we are unaware but also that there is a level of dynamic activity in these unconscious processes which contributes to our emotional and behavioural life (Laplanche & Pontalis, 1973). This idea takes us beyond a notion of a static unconscious where previous thoughts or experiences are ‘laid down’ in a way that is isolated from relationships with other experiences. It refers to processes whereby aspects of emotional life, particularly conflicts between different instincts, feelings and thoughts, actively impinge on one another. The product or evidence of this activity may be in dreams or symptoms. Shakespeare, who so often anticipates our understanding of the mind, puts it eloquently thus:

And since you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection,

I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself,

that of yourself which you yet know not of.

(William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene II)

Although Freud is recognized as the modern founder of psychoanalysis (on which the psychodynamic therapies are based), the principles and foundations of psychodynamic theory are revealed in many of the compelling and elemental stories which have endured throughout history, from religious texts to the role of myths, as universal means of describing the experience of society and the individual.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alvarez, A. & Reid, S. (Eds.). (1999). Autism and personality: findings from the Tavistock Clinic workshop. London: Routledge.
Bateman, A. & Fonagy, P. (1999). The effectiveness of partial hospitalisation in the treatment of borderline personality disorder – a randomised controlled trial. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 1563–9.Google Scholar
DeRubeis, R., Hollon, S., Amsterdam, J.et al. (2005). Cognitive therapy vs medications in the treatment of moderate to severe depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(4), 409–16.Google Scholar
Enns, M., Cox, B. & Clara, I. (2002). Parental bonding and adult psychopathology: results from the US National Comorbidity Survey. Psychological Medicine, 32, 997–1008.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P. (Ed.). (2002). An open door review of outcome studies in psychoanalysis (2nd edn.). London: International Psychoanalytic Association.
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E. & Target, M. (2002). Affect regulation, mentalisation and the development of the self. New York: The Other Press.
Freud, S. (1900). The Interpretation of Dreams. In, J. Strachey (Ed.). The standard edition of the complete psychological work of sigmund freud, Vol. 4–5. London: Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1923). The Ego and the Id. In, J. Strachey (Ed.). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of sigmund freud, Vol. 19. London: Hogarth Press.
Guthrie, E., Moorey, J., Margison, F.et al. (1999). Cost effectiveness of brief psychodynamic–interpersonal therapy in high utilizers of psychiatric services. Archives of General Psychiatry, 56, 519–26.Google Scholar
Hollon, S., DeRubeis, R., Shelton, R.et al. (2005). Prevention of relapse following cognitive therapy vs medications in moderate to severe depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(4), 417–22.Google Scholar
Høglend, P. & Perry, J. C. (1998). Defensive functioning predicts improvement in major depressive episodes. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 186, 238–43.Google Scholar
Laplanche, J. & Pontalis, J. B. (1988, (1973)). The language of psychoanalysis. London: Karnac.
Leuzinger-Bohleber, M. & Target, M. (2003). Outcomes of Psychoanalytic Treatment. Brunner-Routledge.
McLeod, J. (2001). Qualitative research in counselling and psychotherapy. London: Sage.
Martindale, B., Bateman, A., Crowe, M. & Margison, F. (Eds.). (2000). Psychosis: psychological approaches and their effectiveness. London: Gaskell.
National Medical Advisory Committee. (1998). Counselling in primary care. The Scottish Office, Department of Health.
Perry, J. C. (1989). Defence Mechanism Rating Scales (5th edn.). Cambridge MA: Cambridge Hospital.
Richardson, P., Kaechele, H. & Renlund, C. (Eds.). (2004). Research on psychoanalytic psychotherapy with adults. EFPP Monograph. London: Karnac Books.
Roth, A. & Fonagy, P. (2004). What work for whom? A Critical Review of Psychotherapy Research (2nd edn.). New York: Guilford.
Rowland, N. & Goss, S. (Eds.). (2000). Evidence-based counselling and psychological therapies. London: Routledge.
Sinason, V. (1992). Mental handicap and the human condition. Oxford: Free Association Books.
Svartberg, M. & Stiles, T. (1999). The Trondheim Psychotherapy Study: a randomised trial of short term dynamic therapy versus cognitive therapy for cluster C personality disorder. Paper presented to the 30th International Conference, Society for Psychotherapy Research. Braga, Portugal, June.
Vaillant, G. (1971). Theoretical hierarchy of adaptive ego mechanisms. Archives of General Psychiatry, 24, 107–18.Google Scholar
Wallerstein, R. (1986). Forty-two lives: A study of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. New York: The Other Press.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×