Psychoanalysis Therapy

Yalom’s second chapter in the book “Love’s Executioner” (2000) describes the therapy of a terminally ill man, named Carlos, who had been alienating members during his group therapy and other people in his life him. Additionally he had been using his preoccupation with sex as means of death denial. Yalom approaches Carlos in different therapeutically ways; using psychodynamic therapy, persona-centered therapy, rational emotive behavior therapy, and Adlerian therapy.

Psychoanalysis as a therapy is based on the theory that there is a causal relationship between the current mental development of an individual, his or her wishes and desires, needs and behavior, both conscious and unconscious, and his or her experiences from the past (Corey, 2009; Luborsky, O’Reilly-Landry, & Arlow, 2008).

Various schools of depth psychology developed from psychoanalysis. The term “psychoanalysis” is, therefore, suitable for Freud’s theories about the psychodynamics of the unconscious, founded in descriptive and explanatory model of the human psyche, as well as for psychoanalytic therapy, a group of methods for treating internal and interpersonal conflicts, as well as in the psychoanalytic method that deals with the study of cultural phenomena. Other major concepts of psychoanalysis include the analysis of transference and countertransference, and the examination of defense mechanisms (Corey, 2009; Luborsky, O’Reilly-Landry, & Arlow, 2008).

Defense mechanisms are a method of the “ego” to counteract the needs and drives of the “id”, which were restricted by the “superego”. Defense mechanisms are not conscious, but largely unconscious. Freud assumed that people use defense mechanisms every day, but they can become pathological if an individual is fix...

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Works Cited

Corey, G. (2009). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy. Cengage Learning.

Ellis, A. (2008). Psychoanalysis. In Corsini, R. J., & Wedding, D. (9th ed.). Current

Psychotherapies (pp. 196-234). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Luborsky, E., O’Reilly-Landry, M., & Arlow, J. A. (2008). Psychoanalysis. In Corsini, R. J., & Wedding, D. (9th ed.). Current Psychotherapies (pp. 46-47). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Mosak, H. H., & Miniacci, M. (2008). Psychoanalysis. In Corsini, R. J., & Wedding, D. (9th ed.). Current Psychotherapies (pp. 67-112). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Raskin, N. J., Rogers, C. R., & Witty, M. C. (2008). Psychoanalysis. In Corsini, R. J., & Wedding, D. (9th ed.). Current Psychotherapies (pp. 148-195). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Yalom, I. D. (2000). Love’s executioner and other tales of psychotherapy. HarperCollins.