Treatment for psychological disorders can be classified into three different categories: biological treatments, behavioral treatments, and insight psychotherapies.
Biological Therapies
As you’ve learned already in the discussion of the treatment of mood disorders, OCD, and schizophrenia, the discovery of drugs that help alleviate the symptoms of psychological disorders plays a critical role in the treatment of many mental illnesses. The use of drugs is not without its critics, who claim (i) that some of the drugs are being overused, (ii) that drugs are being used in place of other forms of treatment that might be equally effective, and (iii) that the use of other forms of psychotherapy along with the drugs provides the greatest chances of success, but because it is so easy to simply prescribe a medication, many patients receive only the drugs.
Behavioral Therapies
Behavioral therapies are based upon the principles of operant and classical conditioning.
Insight Psychotherapies
“Insight” psychotherapies are the classic “talk” therapies in which the goal of the therapy is for the patient to gain insight into the reasons for his or her problems. Indeed, when people think about the treatment of psychological disorders, most people imagine a patient talking about his or her life problems with a psychotherapist. This form of therapy, which originated with the work of Sigmund Freud in the late 1800s, is used to help patients with a broad range of life adaptation problems. Many different forms of this kind of “insight” therapy have now been developed.
Psychodynamic therapy. This therapy focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in producing maladaptive patterns of behavior, with many of these unconscious features of our personalities having been formed early in life as a result our relationships with our parents. The goal of psychodynamic therapy is to slowly uncover these unconscious forces, analyze them, and help the patient understand how early life experiences now contribute to the patient’s emotional and behavioral problems.
Client-centered therapy. Whereas psychodynamic therapists are active and directive in helping the patient explore his or her unconscious mind, with a focus on the effects of early childhood experiences, Carl Rogers’ client-centered (nondirective) therapy focuses more on present patterns of thinking and behaving, and is (as the name of the therapy suggests) very nondirective in nature. According to Rogers , the role of the therapist is to serve as a trusted listener as the patient explores his or her feelings.
Cognitive therapy. Like client-centered therapy, cognitive therapy focuses on the present rather than the past. But cognitive therapists are much more active and directive than are client-centered therapists. Cognitive therapy focuses directly on the maladaptive modes of thinking about self and others that may be contributing to the patient’s problems. The therapist not only guides the session toward a focus on patterns of thinking, but will also directly challenge those ideas the patient holds that the therapist considers irrational. Cognitive therapy has proven to be particularly valuable in the treatment of depression, focusing on challenging the elements of the pessimistic cognitive style that are known to contribute to, and help maintain, the depression.
Rational Emotive Therapy. In the second psychotherapy video segment you will see a discussion with Albert Ellis (one of the original developers of cognitive therapy) on one form of cognitive therapy, Rational Emotive Therapy. Ellis describes this approach to therapy and then illustrates its use with Gloria, the same woman that you saw being treated with client-centered therapy by Carl Rogers. The difference in the styles of the therapists should be quite obvious. In contrast with the approach taken by Rogers , you will see Ellis taking a very active role in directing the discussion and actively interpreting Gloria’s observations in the context of possible maladaptive ideas and beliefs that Ellis believes are the source of the patient’s problems.
Family therapy. Family members have a great deal of influence on each other. Family therapy is based upon the assumption that many problems that people have develop within the context of the family and are maintained by the way in which family members interact. Moreover, any changes that occur in the primary patient’s feelings or behavior will affect other family members as well. As a result, family therapists consider it important to consider the whole family as the therapeutic unit.
