Abnormal psychology and therapeutic approaches

Abnormal Psych

Each of the major schools of thought in psychology propose treatment interventions for mental disorders. The therapeutic interventions vary depending on the theory's model of mental illness such as perceptions of etiology and goals of treatment. For example, a behaviorist definitively rejects the abstract thinking that would be encouraged by a Gestalt therapist, a humanist, or an existentialist. The single unifying principle among all treatment modalities is the ultimate goal of helping the individual cope with, understand, change, or eliminate distress. Specific treatment modalities advocated and used by the different schools vary considerably.

For example, Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic school addresses mental illness as a manifestation of repressed anxieties and subconscious conflicts. Therefore, therapy emphasizes the manifestations of the subconscious mind including childhood memories, fantasies, and dreams. Therapy includes extensive one-on-one sessions with a counselor who helps the client dig deep into the subconscious mind. Methods like free association, dream interpretation, and transference may be used to uncover layers of the client's mind ("Psychological Therapies").

Like the psychoanalytic school, the humanistic, Gestalt, transpersonal, and existential schools acknowledge the importance of a person's childhood, dreams, fantasies, fears, and anxieties. However, the humanistic, Gestalt, transpersonal, and existential schools pick up where psychoanalysis leaves off by going beyond repressed memories and anxieties ("Psychology Schools of Thought in the United States" nd). The client is treated as a whole person, not reduced to a collection of memories or abnormal behaviors. Instead, the client is encouraged to think about the meaning of his or her conflicts, and how wholeness and happiness can be achieved. Therapeutic interventions focus on talking therapy as with a psychoanalytical intervention, but the therapist assumes a more supportive role than a psychoanalyst would.

The humanistic and Gestalt schools of thought find little in common with behaviorism. Behaviorism focuses almost exclusively on the outward manifestations of mental illnesses. Underlying emotions, childhood memories, and dreams are trivialized in order to focus on bad habits or dysfunctional behaviors. Behavioral therapy employs methods based on classical and operant conditioning including systematic desensitization and aversive conditioning. Talking therapy is not an integral part of behavioral interventions.