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Dream analysis (DA) - (Therapies) (Psychodynamic Approach (Key words…
Dream analysis (DA) - (Therapies)
Psychodynamic Approach
Fraud disagrees with dream dictionaries. But he did believe that you could analyse dreams to uncover meaning behind the dream
Unconscious mind
Fraud says all mental illness comes from the unconscious mind (e.g. phobia, anxiety, depression etc). Thus dream analysis is used to access our U.M. Thus when we are asleep - the ego's defense relaxes (thus weak) which then the U.M reveals themselves in dreams (what is too frightening for the person him/herself)
The content of the U.M. is too threatening thus Fraud says our ego's defense mechanism converts these threatening things into something more socially acceptable which is then disguised in our dream = 'Dreamwork'
Key words
Therapy
Treat mental illnesses
Latent content
The threatening / real meaning of the dream / real material
Manifest Content
Actual story line of the dream (what you remember when you wake up (thus dreams are in the pre-conscious mind)
Manifest > Latent (DA make unconscious to conscious)
Fraud says dreams are the 'Royal Road to the Unconscious Mind'
Repressed material / stuff would resurface to dreams thus conscious
Influence of Childhood
Any painful / traumatic / unresolved problems from childhood would be repressed to the U.M. These repressed materials would not go away (doesn't treat it) thus they would resurface in disguise of dreams as a way of U.M. trying to help you cope with it (solve the problem)
Fraud says if we find the problem, we can cure the problem (mental illness)
Tripartite Personality
Demands and desires of Id resurface in the form of dreams. This is because the Ego's Defence Mechanism is weakened thus Id expresses it's desires in a more socially acceptable way (in dreams)
DA is under drives of Id
Components of DA therapy
Point - one component of DA is that Fruad argues that our dream are a way of fulfilling unconscious wishes
E : This is where the Id act out it's desires in a more socially acceptable way disguised in dreams. DA interpret our dreams to uncover the Id's desires that has been repressed which is most likely the cause of our mental disorders (e.g. anxiety, depression)
P : Another component of DA is that dreams are symbolic in their nature (representing something more deeper than whats in the dream).
There are 2 types of content in our dream. The latent content (unconscious desires and traumas) that is then disguised as manifest content (what you recall from your dreams) as the content of the desires from U.M is too threatening. Thus we use the ego's defense mechanism called 'dreamwork' that happens at an unconscious state (2)
Displacement - latent object is detached and placed onto something totally different and unrelated object
Condensation - latent content is reduced to brief images in a dream. 1 image can represent several different latent meanings
P : The next component is dream diary
E : This is where clients (patients) would record their dreams as soon as they wake up in the morning thus the dream diary is normally left somewhere close to them when sleeping (i.e next to the bed) so they write it down before they forget. This then gets used to start the discussion in therapy session
P : Finally, there is the component of the role of therapists
Therapists would reverse the 'dreamwork' by breaking down the dream into symbols then use free association on their clients on each symbol. Then as the therapist say a symbol the client needs to say whatever that comes into their mind (sometimes can be incoherent) so that the therapist can find the underlying problem such as what are the repressed materials (childhood traumas / emotions / desires. When the therapist find the possible interpretation for the metal disorder they then show it to the client and let them choose the most appropriate interpretation that applies to them. Then the therapist would help the client to deal with it.
Evaluating the effectiveness of DA therapy
P: A strength is that there is research evidence to support that DA is effective
E: Falk & Hill found that 22 newly divorced / separated women who had 8 weeks of DA therapy had a great insights into their problems & higher self-esteem than the control group that was in the waiting list (not having DA)
E: This shows that DA can be effective for helping people deal with life changes such as divorce
C: All 22 members are women thus we cannot be sure that it works on males thus it may not be effective on everyone
P: A strength of DA is that there is evidence to support that dreams are the result of the working of the Id
E: Solms used PET scan and found that the rational part of the brain was inactive when dreaming whereas there was high activity in areas of the brain responsible for memory and motivation
E: This suggest that analysing dreams is an effective way to uncover repressed unconscious desires & conflicts to resolve the disorder they were causing.
P: A weakness is that DA is based on the subjective interpretation of manifest content
E: DA is based on the therapists' interpretation of the dream & the clients' opinion on which interpretation is the best. The key term for things are opinion based is 'subjective'
E: This is a problem because it's difficult to objectively prove that these interpretations are correct & lead to effective treatment for the disorder
P: A strength is that DA addresses the root cause (aetiology) mental problem
E: DA works on uncovering repressed conscious conflicts to the surface so the client can confront & deal with the issue
E: Therefore DA is effective as it treats the cause unlike other therapies such as drug therapy which just controls the symptoms & could lead to the disroder returning
Evalutaing the ethical issues of DA therapy
P: A strength is that DA addresses the root cause (aetiology) mental problem
E: DA works on uncovering repressed unconscious conflicts to the surface so the patient can confront and deal with the issue
E: This makes DA more ethical than other therapies because it actually removes the problem rather than just controls the symptoms
P: A weakness of DA is that it can cause the cleint distress
E: DA works by revealing to the client conflicts & experiences from childhood that were repressed due to being too traumatic deal with
E: This makes DA unethical as it could cause the client more sitress than the mental disroder they were trying to cure
P: One of the main weakness of DA is the power imbalance between therapist and client
E: In DA the therapists provides the interpretations to offer insights into the unconscious so the client is reliant on the therapist
E: This is unethical because it can lead to the client to be too dependant on the therapist & then is unalbee to control their own mental disorder
P: Finally, Da is a weakness as it can create false memories in clients (although this is rare but it can still happen)
E: There are documented cases where therapists had led clients to falsely recall instances of abuse in their past - EXTRA: e.g. Troon et al even suggest some therapists encourage false memories to keep the client in therapy longer so that they can earn more money from them
E: This is unethical because false memory syndrome (FMS) can affect people's indentity, realtionships and lead to false accusation (meaning blaming others for somthing that never happened before and thus can become isolated)