Psychotherapy
Psychology is a science that engages the mind of a person in understanding the behavior of the individual. The human behavior, particularly, is peculiar at times when confronted with certain situations or events. Consequently, like any other body system, the mind is subject to reactions to external influence that impair its normal functioning. This constitutes the basis for a need to develop a technique of treatment; that curbs these health developments that can cause a person to be considered, not of sound mind, or to commit acts that are inhuman.
The field of study that is charged with the mandate to attend to these mental distress disorders is what is professionally referred to as psychotherapy (Corsini & Wedding 2005). It is a technique that relies on social approach to treat the emotional, personality, behavioral and psychiatric disorders. It relies on verbal and non-verbal interventions and communication with the patient. The base treatment is, therefore, talking hence sometimes it is called "talking treatment." It is particularly useful therapy to the health of an individual; as it helps the patient to regain sound and stable mental capacity to live a healthy life, with normal effective relations with the surrounding environment.
As afield, psychotherapy has several concepts incorporated within the practice. It is a vast continuum of related well developed theories, which carry the weight of the practice. Theories which have been developed over the years and consequently, advanced to ensure that they are elaborate enough in dealing with patients. There are different types of the therapies in the profession. These include, Psychodynamic Therapy, Family Focused Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The therapy consists of several systems, with well developed concepts. These systems are the Dynamic, Person-Centered, REBT and Alderian among others (Corsini & Wedding 2005).
These systematic approaches have various therapeutic principles which are widely applied in cases of therapy situations. Such is the case observed in the text in, Love's Executioner, "If Rape Were Legal." The case is an effortless denial scenario that features a man called Carlos (Yalom 2012)....
Carlos is suffering from cancer and is evidently terminally ill. In this story, the man is involved in activities that help him to remain unaware of the real fact that he is facing death in the eyes. The level of involvement of Carlos in the actual situation is noticeably low. In applying the therapeutic principles to help Carlos, Yalom uses several concepts to help Carlos. He applies the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) concept to influence the rationality of Carlos. Carlos has one way thinking; hence Yalom uses this concept, to convince him that his condition is not a sentence to death. He helps him change his motive of thinking that if he could, he would rape, showing him that this line of thinking is not healthy. The denial that carlos has is from fear of death, but with a changed rationality, he starts to accept the cancer challenge.
From the text, the position of meaning is that Carlos has a defiant attitude towards the case he is suffering (Yalom 2012). Carlos has taken the cause of distraction and satisfaction of personal demands to keep his thoughts off the reality. In attending to Carlos, Yalom tries to show him that has control of his individual fate; that his life style is the first determinant of how long he will live with the cancer. This concept is called Alderian therapy. From the text, Carlos is preoccupied with thinking that satisfying his sexual demands will help him escape the reality (Yalom 2012). He goes further into engaging in sexual practices that worsen his thinking into the course that if rape were legal, he would certainly rape. This line of thinking is not constructive, as it continues to stress him worsening the case. With Alderian therapy, he manages to change his lifestyle, and start caring for the people around him and himself, as well.
His unconscious self played a key role in dissipating the belief that these distractions could keep him from the suffering that he was passing. Carlos is seemingly not aware that the cancer is eating into a whole system at an alarming late. He is presented as being pugnacious, combative, selfish and crude in his thinking (Yalom 2012). For instance, Yalom is on record saying that 'if only he could find a way to keep him aware of his looming death'. This is a clear illustration that the…
