Describe the four basic techniques used in Freudian psychoanalysis, and explain the purpose of each

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer will include the following techniques: (1) Free Association involves saying whatever comes to mind. Patients must speak without worrying whether ideas are painful, embarrassing, or illogical. Thoughts are simply allowed to move freely from one idea to the next, without self-censorship. The purpose of free association is to lower defenses so that unconscious thoughts and feelings can emerge. (2) Dream analysis was used by Freud because he believed that dreams provide a "royal road to the unconscious.". Patients freely express forbidden desires and unconscious feelings. These feelings are often found in the latent content (the hidden, symbolic meaning) of dreams. Normally, a patient only remembers a dream's manifest content (obvious, visible meaning), which tends to disguise information from the unconscious. Freud was especially interested in unconscious messages revealed by dream symbols (images that have personal or emotional meanings). (3) Analysis of resistance is another Freudian technique. When free associating or describing dreams, patients may resist talking about or thinking about certain topics. Such resistances (blockages in the flow of ideas) reveal particularly important unconscious conflicts. As analysts become aware of resistances, they bring them to the patient's awareness so the patient can deal with them realistically. Rather than being roadblocks in therapy, resistances can be challenges or guides. (4) Analysis of transference is the last technique to be discussed. Transference is the tendency to "transfer" feelings to a therapist that match those the patient had for important persons in his or her past. At times, the patient may act as if the analyst is a rejecting father or overprotective mother, for example. As the patient re-experiences repressed emotions, therapists can help the patient recognize and understand them. Effective therapists learn to avoid reacting as others do and playing the patient's habitual resistance and transference "games.". This, too, contributes to therapeutic change.