Freud's Treatment Of Psychological Disorders Essay

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Throughout history, the treatment of psychological disorders was based on what people thought was a cure. For instance, people believed that the cause of anger, and madness was due to the possession of evil spirits or demons. Most of the treatment during the 1700’s consisted of exorcisms, and drilling holes in a person’s cranium to release the evil spirits or demons within. Many of the treatments did not work, and those suffering with psychological abnormalities were often seen as burdens in society. In the middle ages, people with psychopathology were removed from society. They were then placed in asylums, and received harsh treatments like beatings and isolation (Grison, S., Heatherton, T. F., & Gazzangia, M. S. (2017). In 1793 Philippe …show more content…

Freud developed the method of psychoanalysis. This method is based on the idea that psychological disorders were caused by past experiences, and early traumatic experiences. Freud’s psychoanalytical treatment involved identifying unconscious conflicts in feelings and drives that contribute to one’s thoughts and behaviors (Grison, S., Heatherton, T. F., & Gazzangia, M. S. (2017). The techniques include free association and dream analysis. In free association, the client is free to express whatever comes to mind and then the therapist would look for signs of unconscious conflicts, especially if the client seems resistant in a topic. In dream analysis, the therapist would interpret their clients dream. An image of this is a person lying on a couch while the therapist listens. This method was intended to reduce the client’s resistance and allow free access to the unconscious. The goal of psychoanalysis is to increase the client’s awareness of their unconscious and improve their daily functioning. According to psychoanalysis the client’s symptoms slowly diminish because of reducing unconscious conflicts that cause distress (Grison, S., Heatherton, T. F., & Gazzangia, M. S.