Read Chapter 16.
What are the basic methods for treating psychological disorders? What are the biggest obstacles? How has your understanding of psychological treatment changed since reading this chapter?
From your reading, which topic(s) are most interesting to you?
What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
Provide a list of psychological terms that you used in your comment at the bottom of your post.
Write your response in Word or other word processor, and SAVE IT. Then, click on 'comments' right below the title of this blog post and above the picture. You will be prompted to log in. Once logged on, you can copy and paste your assignment into the box and submit.
The basic methods for treating psychological disorders is psychotherapy or biological therapy. People with psychological disorders go to see clinicians, clinical practitioners, or therapists that gather information to better explain, describe, and predict psychological disorders.
Some of the biggest obstacles are the conflict and confusion that goes on just between therapists. Therapists are not in agreement with each other with their goals or aims to treating clients(patients). Their not in agreement as to what constitutes a successful outcome in their work or what counts as a failure. The field of psychology seems to be divided in this aspect. Some consider those with a disorder an abnormality and consider therapy as a cure. Others see abnormality as a problem in living and believe therapy is a way to teach ways of more functional behavior and thought.
Something I found interesting were all the different types of behavioral therapies. I did not realize that there were so many of them. One that I found to be very interesting was Beck’s Cognitive Therapy, having clients (patients) experiment with new behaviors to help see if it will give a person a more positive perspective on life sounds like a good idea in reality, but at the same it sounds like a person trying to change a pessimist into an optimist. I also found the section on psychosurgery interesting, in particular the part on lobotomy, a surgical practice of cutting the connections between the frontal lobe and lower centers of the brain, as stated in the textbook. I found the history of it appalling, the lobotomy procedure was developed in the 1930s but it wasn’t until almost thirty years later that people started figuring out that lobotomies were not all that they were made out to be. Why in the world did it take so long? This surgery is irreversible and many of the patients who had this surgery did not have this surgery turn out correctly. This section made me think of Rosemary Kennedy and what she went through after her father had her lobotomized.
Does Therapy Work? That section really made me think. Treatment is said to be more effective than nothing, but what was nice was that this section stuck to the textbook rule of no opinions and used every study that they could find. But knowing all these facts you also have to realize that the person being treated has to be willing to work through therapy and work with the person treating them.
Vocabulary: psychological disorders, psychotherapy, biological therapy, Beck’s Cognitive Therapy, psychosurgery, lobotomy.
After reading this chapter I would say that there are two basic methods for treating psychological disorders. These two are psychotherapy and biological therapy. Psychotherapy deals more with counseling and trying to find ways to go about making a person better by dealing with their behaviors and thoughts. Biological therapy relies more on physical and chemical procedures that may deal with the disorder. Biological therapy often involved surgical procedures or medication where psychotherapy involves more talking and learning of better or new behavior.
Some of the biggest obstacles for treating psychological disorders include the diversity of each disorder, the ability to test theories, and the road blocks that patients place subconsciously. What is meant by the diversity of each disorder is that each person is unique in their own way and in turn their disorder is unique to them. This makes studying these disorders and treating these disorders very difficult. The road blocks that patients place subconsciously can cause a delay or stop of progress in treating that patient’s disorder. Therapists need to recognize the signs of these occurring and work with the patient to deal with this.
My understanding of psychological treatment changed a lot after reading this chapter. Before reading this chapter I thought of therapy as that in movies where the client lays down on the couch and talks for a long time. Now I realize that there are so many different techniques and theories that are used to try to better a person’s mental health. The topic that interested me the most from this reading came out of this realization. I found the token economy programs to be very interesting. From earlier chapters, I knew that the idea of rewards can be highly motivating but it was really interesting to me to see this work in another setting as well. Another area that I found extremely interesting was that of community treatment. I really had not heard much about this area of psychology before and it was fascinating to learn about the different types of prevention that occur in order to give people in these situations the best care.
One of the most surprising things to me was the existential therapy. After reading through what existential therapy entailed it surprised me at the amount of different types of therapy that encompass the realm of abnormal psychology. The book stated that there are over 400 forms of therapy and after reading this chapter this statistic made a lot more sense. The type of therapy is determined by the person and by what they are going through. For instance Gestalt therapies skillful frustration would likely not work on a patient that is shy, introverted, and not manipulative whereas this therapy would have a better success rate for someone who is manipulative, loud, and outgoing. Each of these therapy techniques encompasses ways in which scientists try to make people with differing psychological disorders better and due to our complexity there are many different types and forms of therapy. Overall, this chapter was extremely interesting and helped me to better understand the complexity of psychological disorders and the therapies that try to prevent or make these disorders less taxing on the individual.
Vocabulary: psychological disorders, psychotherapy, biological therapy, counseling, psychological treatment, mental health, token economy program, motivation, community treatment, existential therapy, abnormal psychology, gestalt therapies, skillful frustration
The basic methods for treating mental and psychological disorders are with medicine or therapy, in general. There are several other odd methods that can be used in rare instances that may or may not be up to American Psychological Association’s standards, but in general, these are the two most successful methods. There are certain issues associated with these treatments, but they are far more successful than some other methods that involve less than savory methods. The real issue with therapy and medication is not that it is harmful (although some people can experience adverse effects), but rather that treatment can be expensive, and therefore out of reach for many people who can’t afford the treatment, especially because many insurance companies steer away from people with mental illness.
The biggest obstacle to getting treatment for mental illnesses is, as mentioned before, the cost of treatment. For many of the more severely afflicted patients, they have to go to rehabilitation centers or to mental institutions, where they can readily get the treatment they need for their disorders. This is a huge expense, and the burden usually falls on the family, and makes it hard for the patient to attend the center without guilt, which can cause more issues. Another obstacle is that when medication is being used as a form of treatment; it can be super difficult to get the right mix of medications and this can lead to a long and difficult road to recovery with a lot of issues. Not to mention the various side effects associated with many medications for psychological disorders.
My understanding of psychological treatment has been broadened a lot, because this chapter has helped me to understand how different people react to their treatments, and how different treatments work for different people. It really helped me to understand how certain treatments work for the subjects, and how each treatment has its own difficulties and benefits. It also helped me to come to terms with how long finding the right treatment can actually take, as a lot of the treatment is a medley of different medications in addition to therapy. This is also important to understand because it allows people to be more empathetic to those who need treatment, because this can influence how people think of others, those who have psychological disorders.
I found the practice of trephining really interesting, partially because I am a really big fan of all history, especially history that is interesting and reveals certain things about the past. This is why I find the practice of trephining so fascinating, because it shows me how people approached psychological disorders in the past. This practice shows that through time, people have changed their methods, but it also may show the reasoning behind why each society does what it does in respect to mental disorders. This also indicates many things about the beginnings of psychosurgery.
mental
psychological disorders
medicine
therapy
methods
treatments
mental illnesses
rehabilitation centers
mental institutions
side effects
psychological treatment
trephining
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The two basic methods for treating a psychological disorder are psychotherapy and biological therapy. In psychotherapy, the client and therapist talk and attempt to change behaviors to overcome the psychological issues. On the other hand, biological therapy uses physical or chemical procedures to try and overcome the psychological issues. What I didn’t realize about treatment, however, is that there are many different treatments that are based on the different approaches to psychological disorders. Some of these include brain approaches, psychodynamic approaches, behavioral approaches, cognitive-behavioral approaches, and humanistic and existential approaches. The psychologists each have their own “schools of thought” about how psychological disorders occur and this affects what type of treatments they conduct for their patients.
Aside from the normal difficulties in treatments like certain treatments not working for everyone, side effects, and frequent relapses, I also really appreciated that the textbook recognized obstacles to treatments like money, accessibility, and stigma. The first obstacle to treatment that a person experiences is not wanting to be treatment. Because there is still such a stigma around mental illness, those that really need help are often reluctant to seek it out. When they do decide to seek treatment, often they run into issues of not being able to afford proper care. The book says that personal wealth and insurance coverage is the biggest factor in determining what kind of treatment a patient seeks. Additionally, it also talks about how some facilities are underfunded and understaffed and are not able to meet the treatment needs of everyone it serves. These are huge barriers to treatment and are also potentially some of the easiest to overcome.
The most shocking thing I read about in this chapter was about the different types of treatments in the brain approach. I was aware of all of the drugs that are prescribed to people with psychological disorders, but I didn’t know about all of the bizarre medical procedures. Some of these, like electroconvulsive therapy, sound painful and very dangerous! It is not hard to imagine something going wrong in this process since the patient is receiving electrical shocks to the brain. The book does cite that some of these medical procedures are successful in up to 65% of patients, especially those with severe depression, but I believe that these treatments alone would not be enough to resolve these psychological disorders. I think that it is also important that patients receive social and emotional support and additional psychotherapy as well.
The most interesting treatment that I read about was one of the cognitive-behavioral theories. I really found the rational-emotive behavioral therapy to be interesting and seemingly promising. In this therapy, clients are made aware of and helped to change the irrational assumptions that control their emotions, behaviors, and thinking. The book gave an example of a man learning to restructure his thinking that being rejected by a woman would be terrible. In a lot of ways, this is something I believe people can do on their own if they know how to do it. I know that this obviously wouldn’t solve a lot of the major psychological disorders, but it could definitely assist in many smaller issues.
Vocabulary: therapy, psychotherapy, biological therapy, treatment, electroconvulsive therapy, rational-emotive behavioral therapy
I never really thought about the fact that certain types of therapy are better for certain types of psychological disorders. I assumed that therapists just tried different methods and techniques until they felt that they had achieved a positive result. It makes sense though, that therapists would specialize in a specific kind of therapy and take clients that possessed those disorders specific to the treatment type.
There are two basic methods for treating psychological disorders and those are psychotherapy and biological therapy. Psychotherapy involves words or actions between the therapist and client to help them overcome their psychological difficulties. Biological therapy on the other hand, uses physical and chemical procedures to help them overcome their psychological difficulties. Categories of psychotherapy involve psychodynamic therapy, behavioral therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, humanistic therapy and existential therapy. For those types of therapy, they can be done individually, in group sessions, with the family, or within a couple. Examples of biological therapy are psychotropic drugs and psychosurgery. There are many types of medications that can help individuals that suffer these disorders, however there has recently been an increase in misuse and overuse of such drugs as well. Drug therapy is often used in combination with another type of therapy too, rather than simply by itself. There are also different types of psychosurgery. One kind of psychosurgery is known as a lobotomy, in which the connections of the prefrontal cortex with other brain regions are severed. It is a very controversial procedure due to the high prevalence of adverse effects.
When trying to treat psychological disorders, many obstacles come about. It is sometimes difficult to work around these obstacles because they are not always the same for each patient or disorder. Some therapy works better for one person, and doesn't prove very successful for others. In general however, statistics have shown that receiving therapy is more likely to help people with psychological disorders than going without treatment. The success rates often vary and are inconclusive though. One factor that largely impacts the success of therapy is the patient's willingness to get help. It is also the responsibility of the therapist to recognize the type of person their client is and what their personality is like. Certain types of therapy will not be as effective if they do not take into account who they are working with. It is important for the client to understand this too when they are searching for a therapist because it can be extremely expensive.
I was amazed to discover that more than 20 million people per year receive therapy for psychological disorders. Even sadder to learn, it is estimated that one half or more of people with psychological disorders never seek treatment. One reason for this occurrence is the introduction of things like eating disorder websites that are working against therapy and promoting the negative culture. It is common for people to also feel a sense of social stigma against therapy so they often do not look for assistance in that direction.
Vocabulary Terms: therapy, psychological disorders, psychotherapy, biological therapy, eating disorder, psychotropic drugs, psychosurgery, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, existential, drug therapy, lobotomy
All types of treatment for all psychological disorders comprise of three important features: a sufferer, a trained healer, and a series of contacts between the healer and the sufferer. There are several methods to treating disorders that have been modified to target a specific disorder, but all follow the three essential elements. There are six different approaches to treating psychological disorders and they are the brain approach, psychodynamic approach, behavioral approach, cognitive-behavioral approach and humanistic and existential approaches. Each consist of different techniques and goals for treating disorders. The brain approach involves drug therapy, electroconvulsive therapy and psychosurgery. The main goal of the brain approach is to improve the chemical function of the brain to relieve symptoms. The psychodynamic approach focuses on discovering past sources of conflict that could be causing symptoms and resolving these conflicts so that symptoms will subside. The behavioral approach believes that symptoms of psychological disorders are learned behaviors learned the same way normal behaviors are. It focuses on replacing those faulty behaviors with more functioning ones. This is often achieved through desensitization, aversion therapy, operant conditioning and therapist modeling. The cognitive-behavioral approach combines the ideas of the behavioral, along with the idea that there is also a dysfunction in thinking involved in disorders. So as opposed to changing behaviors, the cognitive-behavior approach focuses on changing harmful thinking patters to more useful ones. Finally, the humanistic and existential approaches believe that honest self-appraisal, self-acceptance and self-actualization are the key to overcoming psychological disorders. The biggest obstacles to treatment is often the weakness each approach presents. For example, the brain approaches often come with unwanted side effects. In terms of behavioral approaches, these forms of therapy way not be effective long after treatment stops.
My understanding of psychological treatment has been expanded since reading this chapter. I was previously aware of approaches such as the brain and cognitive-behavioral approaches, but was unware of models such as the humanistic and existential. I also was very unfamiliar with the drawbacks each form of therapy might include and the kinds of disorders each type is more geared towards.
The most interesting topic in this chapter was the humanistic and existential approaches to treatment. As I previously mentioned, I had never heard of this form of treatment before, and while reading about it, I found it to be very interesting. It makes a great deal of sense to focus on self-acceptance and self-actualization when treating psychological disorders, because this is something that is often greatly lacking in those suffering, but it never occurred to me to format an entire style of treatment around this idea. However, there is little research and empirical data on the approach to approve its effectiveness.
The most memorable thing I read in this chapter was a short sentence regarding the insurance coverage of treatment for psychological disorders. I recently did a research project on the lack of insurance coverage for eating disorders, and it surprised me to see it mentioned in the textbook. This is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart, and seeing it discussed in an academic textbook proves that it is a legitimate issue that needs to be discussed and resolved.
Terms: Therapy, treatment, electroconvulsive therapy, psychosurgery, aversion therapy, cognitive therapy
There are more than 400 methods of treatment and therapy in use in the psychological world today. Each of these can be performed on the patient as an individual, or collectively in situations such as group, family, couple, and community therapy. Psychologists have five different theories when it comes to psychological disorders, and each point of view has its own opinion on how to best treat abnormalities.
Some psychologists focus on the brain and its functioning when it comes to psychological disorders and their treatments. They suggest a more physical approach to treatment, using methods such as drug and electroconvulsive therapy, and even psychosurgery in some cases. Some of the issues with this brain-centered approach are a very high risk of serious side effects and they haven’t been proven to always be completely enough to heal psychological disorders.
Psychologists who take the psychodynamic approach believe that a traumatic event in the patient’s past causes a psychological disorder in the future. There are many different techniques when it comes to psychodynamic therapy, but the basic idea is a trained therapist has a guided discussion with the patient and tries to get them to come to their own conclusions. This approach is used by about 15% of psychologists today, but it has never been proven to be that effective.
Behavioral theorists focus on redirecting the patient’s behavior to treat their disorder. Behaviorists use classical conditioning techniques such as aversion therapy, operant conditioning techniques like token economy programs, and modeling techniques. These techniques have also not been proven to be effective when it comes to broadly defined disorders and sustainability over long periods of time.
Cognitive-behaviorists focus on a dysfunction in cognitive thinking as being to blame for psychological disorders, and their therapy methods focus on pinpointing the errors in thinking. Their methods include rational-emotive behavioral theory, cognitive theory, and second-wave cognitive behavioral theories. One issue with these methods actually has more to do with their central theory, as a disturbance in cognition has not been proven to be central to psychological disorders and their causes.
Humanists and existentialists try to get patients to look at their situations differently and to accept the way they are. Their therapy methods are client-centered, and include Gesalt therapy and existential therapy. However, a major obstacle with this school of thought and their methods is that it’s very hard to research and prove.
I really wasn’t aware that there were so many different ways to treat psychological disorders. Before reading this chapter, I thought medication and institutions were the only options. I was surprised to learn that some of the treatments involved just having a conversation with a therapist. Those methods interested me the most, as I was fascinated to learn exactly what the therapist tried to guide the conversation towards. I also wasn’t aware that some people even have surgery to help with their psychological disorder. That was very surprising to me.
Terms: individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy, couple therapy, community treatment, drug therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, psychosurgery, aversion therapy, token economy programs, rational-emotive behavioral theory, cognitive theory, client-centered therapy, Gesalt therapy, existential therapy
Each field of psychology has its own particular way of interpreting and managing disorders through treatment methods. The Brain Approach includes changing biochemical or structural functioning of the brain to stop the disorder. This includes taking psychotropic drugs the control biochemically how the brain functions. Examples of these drugs are antianxiety drugs, antidepressant, mood stabilizer, or antipsychotic drugs. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), Vagus Nerve Stimulation, and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) are therapies under this category. TMS is administered 2 to 4 weeks daily and it is a procedure where a coil is placed on the patient's head sending shocks to the prefrontal cortex. Psychosurgeries including trephination and lobotomies are well known as well as deep brain stimulation which is a long time procedure where an electrode is placed in the brain with pacemaker in chest or stomach of the patient sending lower voltage current to help depression, Parkinson’s, and epilepsy. Psychodynamic Therapies involve discovering and resolving sources of conflict within a patient. Free association is the classic form of this approach where the client freely talks and the therapist probes associations for unconscious problems looking for resistance which is avoidance of certain topics, transference which is where the patient acts and feels toward a therapist as if he were an important figure in their life, and dream catharsis which is living repressed feelings through dreams to overcome inner conflicts to work out problems. These are known for being some of the first major biological treatments.The last type of psychodynamic approach is relational psychoanalytic therapy where the therapist builds an equal relationship with client to solve their problems. Behavioral Therapies aim at learning more functional behaviors overwriting bad ones. These include desensitization, aversion therapy where clients acquire anxiety responses to things that are too attractive to them, classical conditioning which works well against phobias, and operant conditioning. Unlike many of these other approaches these procedures tend to have a lot of research available to back up their validity. Social-skills training or modeling is also another key to this approach where the therapist models the good behavior for the patient to imitate. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies have the goal of changing disordered thinking patterns to useful ones. This is done through Rational-Emotive therapy where clients discover and change irrational assumptions that stimulate the bad thinking through a process of cognitive reconstruction. There is also Cognitive therapy where the patient discovers and changes dysfunctional thoughts and thinking processes. There is also a Second-wave movement to this approach geared toward learning to accept rather than change disordered thought which works a lot on generalized anxiety. This approach has research to prove it works against multiple disorders. The last approach is the Humanistic/Existential Therapies approach which aids in support for honest self-appraisal, self-acceptance, and self-actualization of the client. Client-centered therapy is a Roger’s made therapy in which clients experience unconditional positive regard from the therapist and are through the process, able to see themselves acceptingly and honestly with sincere communication and accurate empathy from the therapist. Existential therapy revolves around recognizing positive human goals and recognize human values and needs within the client.
As much as many of these are well known and used techniques, there are obstacles with each form of therapy. With the Brain Approach there may be severe side effects and it ignores environmental factors that may stimulate the disorder. These include negative experiences that can stop the therapy from helping the client. Psychodynamic Therapies are not supported in effectiveness well by any sort of research. Behavioral therapies have some down sides including the fact that treatment effects may not last for a lifetime and the symptoms may come back. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies believe that all dysfunctional thinking is the cause of disorder when this may not be the case for all disorders, but instead it sometimes stems from the disorder itself. Humanistic/Existential therapies have unsupportive and limited research to support their effectiveness in a clinical setting.
I think how my perspective has been changed on this subject is that I thought of some of these forms of therapy as being medieval and not used any more however I was mistaken. This was especially the case for ECT. I always thought of it as something that never worked and just harmed patients, but I never knew that in many cases it actually helped them. Some surprising topics that popped up over the course of the chapter for me were the ECT and Vagus Nerve Stimulation. ECT is another form of the Brain approch where therapists shoot 65 to 140 volts into brain to produce small few minute long brain seizure that helps 70% of studied cases of depression. I never knew how this worked before and I find it fascinating. Vagus nerve stimulation is another form that I found very interesting where a pulse generator is hooked to the left vagus nerve sending subsequent electrical pulses to the nerve.
I had never heard of it before and it seemed like a very viable therapy.
Terms: Vagus Nerve Stimulation, Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), Humanistic/Existential Theory, self-actualization, Client-centered therapy, cognitive therapy, Rational-Emotive Therapy, social-skills training, operant/classical conditioning, aversion therapy, desensitization, phobia, psychosurgeries, free association
The previous chapter focused much more about the different types of psychological disorders and it makes sense that each of the disorders explained would have different approaches for treatment. As seen in this chapter there are a wide range of treatment options with some being better at treating certain disorders than others. The two basic methods of therapy are psychotherapy and biological therapy. Biological therapy is a method that focuses with more biological chemicals and brain treatment to resolve psychological disorders. Psychotherapy, on the other hand, includes various different therapies within its area, these include: behavioral therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, humanistic and existential therapy. These types of methods deal more with clients talking with a therapist in order to receive advice about how changed in behavior can lead to recovery. Despite there being many other methods of therapy, each method has three key features: a sufferer, a healer, and a series of contacts between the two.
Psychologists have come a long way in learning about and diagnosing psychological disorders, but there are still obstacles when it comes to treating patients. Psychological disorders affect people differently and so one method of therapy might work for one person but be a total waste of time for another. Perhaps most importantly is the client’s obstacle of overcoming trust issues. The person who is seeking help needs to be open to really trying to change or commit to other forms of treatments. If a client is willing to seek therapy, they will most likely also be more willing to open up to their therapist.
This chapter has made me realize that are more treatments for psychological disorders than I originally perceived. Prior to reading I understood that each person’s case was different but I never knew how many different methods of therapy existed. There were also some methods of therapy that I have never heard of before like culture-sensitive therapy or gender-sensitive therapy. Learning about the different types of therapy there are made me realize that my perception of therapy has been completely skewed by the normal idea of what it actually is. Like most of the general population, therapy is viewed as a therapist and client discussing about problems but therapy takes different forms. For example therapy doesn’t always have to be talking to a therapist alone, there are certainly group therapy, family therapy, and couple therapy available and sometimes even more beneficial.
The most interesting topic I read from this chapter is the biological therapy. In most cases people think of therapy in the sense of the one on one meeting with a therapist but I don’t think biological therapy gains enough attention. I can see why it might be scary or even more uncomfortable to have to take prescription drugs or undergo a surgery as a form of treatment. Out of the all of the biological therapy approaches, people are more familiar with drug therapy. This type of therapy uses psychotropic drugs affect the brain to attempt to reduce symptoms of psychological disorders. Some of these psychotropic drugs included antianxiety drugs, antidepressant drugs, mood stabilizer drugs, and antipsychotic drugs.
Vocabulary: therapy, psychotherapy, biological therapy, group therapy, family therapy, couple therapy, culture-sensitive therapy, gender-sensitive therapy, antianxiety drugs, antidepressant drugs, mood stabilizer drugs, and antipsychotic drugs
Therapy is one of the basic methods for treating psychological disorders. It comes in two distinct types: psychotherapy, which uses communication between a sufferer and a healer to work through problems, and biological therapy, in which the sufferer receives physical treatment, such as medications, physical therapies or psychosurgery. There are plenty of obstacles standing in the way of treatments. One of the most common is financial challenges; oftentimes people can’t afford to be treated at a private institution, but they do not receive the care they need at a public one. Another is the lack of information on many disorders, as well as little information on which therapy works better for which disorder or patient. Because there is no tried and true way to receive the right treatment the first time around, patients can become frustrated if they are not making progress. They then face the possibility of giving up before finding the treatment that works for them, and therefore not making progress. My understanding has been changed a bit by simply realizing that there are many more techniques and styles of therapy than I was aware of, and that any combination of these could be used to treat someone who has been struggling with a psychological disorder.
I found the little tidbits on unconditional positive regard really interesting. The textbook showed an example of therapy dogs being brought to the Virginia Tech campus after the massacre in order to help students heal. This concept is a familiar one to college students on a slightly less serious note, with the arrival of therapy dogs during every finals week. If a student is stressed to the max and having serious anxiety about a difficult final, it makes a lot of sense for them to be able to cuddle with a dog and say “even if I fail that test, this dog still loves me and I’m still worth something”.
I was really surprised by the Gestalt techniques. I always pictured therapy as a calm, safe place where feelings were validated and worked through gently, with the therapist providing every accommodation they could for their patient. I never considered the possibility of frustration being used as a tool to bring about self-awareness, especially in the form of the therapist consistently denying their patient’s expectations. Although it may seem a little harsh, it’s really fascinating how that could be very effective on a patient who is manipulative or simply not self-aware. I think that it could probably be used very effectively in conjunction with other treatments – Gestalt to force the patient into self-awareness and another type, perhaps existential theory, to use that self-awareness to make productive changes.
Therapy, treatment, psychotherapy, biological therapy, psychosurgery, Gestalt techniques, existential theory
Treating Psychological disorders is done in many ways. These methods fall under two categories, Psychotherapy and biological therapy. Psychotherapy is the therapy that everyone thinks of when you mention “therapy.” The futon thing, the clipboard, the “and how does that make you feel?” THAT is psychotherapy. Biological therapy on the other hand is the treatment of psychological disorders with medical procedures or medications. Both methods have obstacles that cause issues with the understanding of their effectiveness. For example, psychological disorders have an extremely high amount of variation. This causes issues with understanding the benchmarks of the severity of the disorder and the progress the patient has made. Once finished with treatment, patients can relapse which causes the results of their treatment to become skewed because their therapist believed them to be cured, but they are no longer “healthy.” There are financial barriers and other social barriers that make treatment less accessible as well. Previously, my only understanding of Psychological treatment was therapy sessions and anti-depressants. I knew nothing about what was occurring with biological treatment of the mind and I didn’t understand what was occurring in therapy sessions. I now understand that there is an entire side to Psychological disorder treatment that focuses on changing the chemistry of the brain to make someone better while psychotherapeutic options focus on helping individuals understand what is causing them to think and feel the way they are.
Reading about the use of shock therapy was very interesting and terrifying to me. Inducing a controlled seizure through pulses of electricity sent through the brain that somehow balances out the emotions of an individual is incredible. Like a defibrillation for the heart, this shock allows a restart to occur in a depressed brain. It may be reminiscent of a mad scientist but it has been proven to work in some cases. I was shocked (haha) to learn that electroconvulsive therapy was still in use today because it seems like an unethical early treatment from when doctors didn’t have a good understanding of what was happening in the brain.
Psychotherapy
Psychological disorders
Biological therapy
Treatment
Medications
Severity
Antidepressants
Electro convulsion therapy
Unethical
Brain, Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Cognitive-behavioral, and Humanistic/Existential approaches are all ways of treating psychological disorders. In brain approaches, psychotropic drugs, electroconvulsive therapy, and psychosurgery are used to try and chemically or physically alter the brain. The psychodynamic approaches include free association, and catharsis. During these therapies, the therapist will observe the patient’s use of resistance, transference, and the dreams that the patient has had. Even though psychodynamic approaches are used, there is little scientific evidence supporting it. Behavioral approaches use classical, operant, and modeling techniques. In classical conditioning techniques therapists use systematic desensitization and aversion therapy. Token economy programs are types of operant conditioning techniques. Social-skills training is an example of a modeling technique. Rational-emotive and cognitive therapies are examples of cognitive-behavioral approaches. The last treatment method uses client-centered, Gestalt, and existential therapies. Humanistic/existential approaches have not been well enough tested to truly understand if its therapies are helpful.
Before I read this chapter, I thought that therapists either prescribed medicine or used free association techniques to overcome problems. I was not aware that ECT types of therapies like vagus nerve stimulation and TMS are still being used. I was also unaware of the many different kinds of psychotropic drugs that can be administered for different disorders.
I was most interested in brain approaches while reading this chapter. I was surprised that the ECT type of treatments are used primarily to treat depression. I always assumed that they were used to treat severe schizophrenia or paranoia or other big name disorders you hear about in movies. I think it would be nice to learn more about psychosurgery and how the procedure is done to solve the problem and maintain as much normal function as possible.
The most surprising thing for me was that most psychodynamic therapies are not scientifically proven. I had always thought that psychodynamic treatment was the only treatment used instead of medication or surgery. But as is the case with almost everything I thought was true about psychology it is based on Freudian theories which have little scientific backing.
Psychotropic drugs
Electroconvulsive therapy
Psychosurgery
Free association
Catharsis
Resistance
Transference
Aversion therapy
Token economy
Rational-emotive therapy
Cognitive therapy
Client-centered therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy
Vagus nerve stimulation
Transcranial magnetic stimulati