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Aims:
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uncovering the unconscious
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intellectual understanding
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release of pent-up emotions
Techniques:
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free-association
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analysis of dreams
Therapeutic processes:
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Resistance - either conscious or unconscious.
Its occurrence usually indicates that something important is close by
and that the client is about to reveal something important.
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Transference - feelings toward the person who
is at the center of the patients conflicts is transferred (displace)
to the therapist. This might be love or hate. This is a defense
mechanism as it’s easier and less anxiety provoking to feel these
emotions toward your therapist than the object of these emotions,
according to Freud. When transference occurs, and it can be
problematical, its interpretation becomes an important part of the
therapeutic process.
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Insight - this doesn’t actually refer simply
to intellectual understanding rather to the re-experiencing of the
emotional reality of the repressed conflicts, memories, urges. This
leads to an understanding of how these conflicts have influenced
functioning and behaviour for years.
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