There are many different types of therapies or psychological methods used to
alleviate problems. First, there are therapies that emphasize the value of
gaining insight to personal problems. Then there are behavior therapies and
cognitive therapies, which are used to directly change troublesome actions and
thoughts. Two therapies I will be describing are rational-emotive behavior
therapy and psychoanalysis. According to author Dennis Coon of Introduction to
Psychology, ⌠Rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) attempts to change
or remove irrational beliefs that cause emotional problems. Albert Ellis states
the basic idea of rational-emotive behavior is easy as ABC. He assumes that
people become unhappy and develop self-defeating habits because they have
unrealistic or faulty beliefs. Ellis analyzes problems in this way: The letter A
stands for an activating experience, which the person assumes to be the cause of
C, an emotional consequence. For example, a person who is rejected (the
activating experience) feels depressed, threatened, or hurt (the consequence).
Rational-emotive therapy, however, shows that the real problem comes between A
and C. In between is B, the patient`s unrealistic beliefs. There are many
irrational or unrealistic beliefs that we all tend to hold. For instance,
certain people I must deal with are thoroughly bad and should be severely blamed
and punished for. This could lead to ⌠The old man next door is such a
pain. I`m going to play my stereo even louder the next time he complains.
Another irrational belief is it is awful and upsetting when things are not the
way I would very much like them to be. For example, ⌠I should have gotten
a B in that class. The teacher doesn`t like me. Rational-emotive behavior
therapy holds that events do not cause us to have feelings. We feel as we do
because of our beliefs. Psychoanalysis resolves internal conflicts that lead to
emotional suffering. Because of the huge amounts of time and money it requires,
psychoanalysts have become rare. Four basic techniques Freud relied on to
uncover the roots of psychoanalysis are free association, dream analysis,
analysis of resistance, and analysis of transference. During psychoanalysis, the
patient engages in free association, by saying whatever comes to mind. They must
speak without concern for whether the ideas are painful, embarrassing, or
illogical. Dream analysis is also considered a good way to tap the
unconsciousness. Freud felt that forbidden desires and unconscious feelings are
more freely expressed in dreams. Then there is analysis of resistance where the
analyst becomes aware of resistances, or blockages in the flow of ideas, and he
or she brings them to the patients awareness so they can be dealt with
realistically. Finally, there is analysis of transference, which the patient may
act as if the analyst is the rejecting father, former lover, or whoever the
patient is feeling anger towards. All of these techniques are used in
psychoanalysis today. Both rational-emotive behavior and psychoanalysis help the
patients recognize their problem and deal with it. The world today should be
lucky and take advantage of the many different types of therapies we are able to
choose from. These are just two of the many we are able to have.