The Contributions Of Sigmund Freud's Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

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Sigmund Freud is known as the founding father of psychology. If it wasn’t for Freud and his work psychology probably wouldn’t be around today (Javel, 1999). Although Freud had many followers there were some who didn’t agree with his work and found his work to be very controversial. There were also many who criticized his work, one of his most controversial and criticized work was his psychosexual stages of development and his believes about the famous “Oedipus Complex.” Psychoanalysis is the first known modality used to treat individuals with psychological disorders. Freud’s work was a foundation for many whether they believed in his work or not. From his work other psychologist would adopt what they liked and what they didn’t like they would modify coming up with new theories, modalities, and treatment options (Javel, 1999). Psychology has evolved greatly from the beginning to now. One of the newer modalities introduced to the field of psychology; thanks to Freud’s work is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). There are many similarities to many of Freud’s concepts with those of CBT. In CBT the concepts of automatic thoughts, core beliefs, and the desire to please the therapist are introduced (Javel, 1999). These same concepts have shown to have parallels with some of Freud 's work like involuntary thoughts, the preconscious, the unconscious, and
Freud’s unconscious mind concept resembles CBT’s “automatic thought” concept, which the patient has no control over (Javel, 1999). Freud liked to focus on his patients past because he believed that their present psychopathology was triggered by something in their past. CBT on the other hand, is a quick fix method which doesn’t touch on the past. It focuses on helping the patient with maladaptive behaviors in the present. Psychoanalysis treatments can last year’s whereas CBT may last anywhere form 6-20 sessions (Javel,

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