Epicurus, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche are forefathers of contemporary psychotherapy. Freud was aware of these wellsprings of modern therapy, and Jung brings them specifically into his writing and his methods. We not only get hints from these forefathers, but we also find a lasting base in them, such as Bubar's "l-thou" construct or Kierkegaard's emphasis on the ultimate relationship of the self to life. These ideas are assumed in Freud, Jung, Adler, Rank, Fromm and other leading therapists in our day. It is these latter therapists who have given us the web of ideas which underlie contemporary psychotherapy.
Human experience and human action center in and derive from human subjectivity. Our preoccupation with objectivity results displaces identity from inner living to external. Life-changing psychotherapy requires centered awareness and self-direction. Three therapeutic elements are prime: Full presence, major commitment, and exploring client's self-and-world constructs.
The importance of therapeutic alliance is described. Therapeutic alliance, transference, and transference acting-out are defined and distinguished from each other and the therapeutic task of helping the patient to convert transference acting-out to therapeutic alliance and transference is outlined. The differences in the form and content of the intrapsychic structure are described to show why different therapeutic techniques are necessary to establish the therapeutic alliance: Confrontation with the borderline and mirroring interpretation of narcissistic vulnerability with the Narcissistic Personality Disorder. A brief case illustrates each.
The emphasis in Dynamic Psychotherapy over the past few decades has shifted from a focus on insight and the recovery of early memories to a recognition that the quality of the patient-therapist relationship is the quintessential factor upon which the success of therapy depends. This involves both the real relationship and transference-countertransference elements, all within a systems-theory orientation.
The enormous changes brought about in the last 25 years by the women's movement and the sex role revolution have opened new possibilities and problems-sources of conflict and new strengths for women, men and families. There is a challenge now for psychotherapists to break through their own remnant stereotypes of feminine mystique, masculine mystique, and obsolete assumptions about family so that they may distinguish between personal and political pathology and help evolving women, men and families find and use more consciously their new strengths and confront real problems realistically.
Workshop 31 from the Evolution of Psychotherapy 1990 - Family Therapy, featuring Salvador Minuchin, MD.
This workshop will discuss the technique and theory of Family Therapy. Videotaped examples will be presented and discussed.
Ericksonian approaches use both direct and indirect techniques and tailor methods to the unique characteristics of individual patients. Diagnostic categories can be used to individualize treatment. These tailored techniques are ways of "gift wrapping" ideas so that patients can best actuate effective changes. The concept of "Utilization'' and methods of processing interventions will be discussed. In Ericksonian treatment, dynamic experiences precede dynamic understanding.
This workshop will focus on physical (muscular) tension in the body and relate it to emotional conflicts in the present, derived from early childhood experiences. Specific attention will be paid to temporomandibular tension and to disturbances in breathing. Asthma will be examined as an emotional problem. The dynamics of headaches will be studied, and techniques for releasing underlying tension will be demonstrated.
This workshop will show, through a series of clinical demonstrations (using attendees from the workshop as role-players), how Reality Therapy works with different types of clients.