GLOBAL THERAPIES for Sex & Love Addiction Compared
GLOBAL THERAPIES
Cognitive and behavioral therapies are specific treatments for quite specific
problems. Those therapies assume that the presenting problem is the problem
that required treatment, and that nothing else requires treatment.
Global therapies, on the other hand, all assume that the presenting problem
is merely the symptom of some larger, underlying disorder. Much as fever is
not itself the entire illness but rather a symptom of a deeper malaise, so are
psychological symptoms merely the outcropping of underlying conflicts and
erroneous perceptions. It is the latter that require treatment because they
tend to radiate a host of cognitive and behavioral difficulties.
Global therapies are mainly those that are derived from the psychodynamic
approaches, as well as humanistic and existential approaches. Each
of these therapies assumes that psychological distress arises because something
is fundamentally wrong with the client's personality. They differ, as we
will shortly see, in their view of precisely what is wrong and how it can best
be remedied.
Classical Psychoanalysis
The heartland of psychological distress in the psychoanalytic
view lies in the anxiety and self-defeating postures that are generated
by unacceptable impulses. These impulses are repressed and
otherwise restrained from consciousness by the host of coping mechanisms
that can be generated by an enormously creative and flexible mind. But ultimately,
these defenses are costly, for they sap the strength of the ego and
continue to leave residual anxieties that render individuals miserable. The
solution for Freud, and for those who followed his tradition, was to make
conscious the unconscious impulses so that acceptable means of gratifying
them could be found.
With the help of the therapist, the client seeks to define his or her unconscious
motivations. Classical psychoanalysts require their clients to lie on a
couch in order to minimize their attention to the therapist, relax them, and
enable them to engage in free association. Clients are instructed to say what ever comes to mind, regardless of how ridiculous or embarrassing it is, and
without attempting to censor. The rationale behind this procedure is that
the unconscious has a logic of its own that is manifested in these seemingly
disconnected and meaningless associations. If the client associates freely,
the unconscious motives and conflicts will reveal themselves through these
disconnected verbal threads. The analysis of dreams proceeds in the same
manner. There, the client associates to the content and theme of the dream
and, in the process, uncovers its unconscious meaning.
Unconscious impulses and conflicts do not yield easily or readily to this
form of exploration. As the client begins to confront a conflict, he or she is
likely to resist going further. Such resistance can take many forms, such as
changing the subject, starting an argument with the therapist, coming late,
and even missing appointments. Trained not to take these matters personally,
the therapist patiently interprets the resistance just as any other symptoms
might be interpreted. These interpretations bring the client back to the
"work of analysis."
As a psychoanalysis progresses, clients find themselves revealing things to
their therapists that they had never revealed to anyone before, not even to
themselves. Understandably, the relationship to the therapist becomes
richly emotional and complex. And although the therapist remains impassive,
clients react to him or her with intense love, dependency, biting anger,
or rebellion, and often all at once. As we can see, psychoanalysts
view this behavior as the transference of conflicts and frustrations that were
experienced with parents during early childhood, onto the therapist. The
analysis of transference, because it is immediate and real, is a major opportunity
for self-understanding and growth during psychoanalysis.
Psychodynamic Variants
Psychoanalysis is a time-consuming, costly, and cumbersome method of
treatment. Moreover, not all therapists believe in
all of its basic assumptions. As a result, a variety of psycho dynamically oriented
therapies have been developed. All of them retain the notion that unconscious
impulses and conflicts spawn anxiety and other forms of human
misery, and that insight into those conflicts is the goal of treatment. But the
kinds of impulses that are examined, and the ways in which they can be
made conscious, vary enormously from therapist to therapist. In general,
modern psychodynamic therapies differ from classical psychoanalysis in
three ways.
First, the therapist is much more active, not merely in interpreting
unconscious material, but also in offering advice and suggesting constructive
options.
Second, these therapies are more efficient and less time
consuming. Whereas classical psychoanalysis required the client to lie on
the couch five times a week for several years, modern psychodynamic therapies
are conducted face-to-face, commonly no more than once or twice a
week.
Newer psychodynamic therapies concentrate on the present rather than the
past, and emphasize current social relationships rather than earlier ones.
The very content of these therapies may differ widely, according to the
orientation of the therapist. Whereas classical psychoanalysis is concerned
mainly with the dynamics of sexual and aggressive impulses,
Jungian therapists take a larger view of the psyche and may, allude
to a variety of archetypes, unconscious materials, and dynamics. Adlerian
therapists stress the will to superiority, and Sullivanian therapists examine
current social relationships. Many psychodynamic therapists are eclectic,
meaning that they use insights from each school of treatment in accord with
the needs of individual cases. These newer and briefer forms of treatment
are among the most widely practiced and available today (Parloff, 1976).
Humanistic and Existential Treatments
The treatments that derive from humanistic and existential theories of personality
rely less on illuminating unconscious processes, and considerably
more on "being oneself." Rogerian therapy, as discussed earlier, starts
with the assumption that humans are innately good and motivated to actualize
their various potentials. The social environments (especially their families)
in which they live, however, do not often recognize that innate
goodness, and they commonly lay down unrealistic standards regarding performance
and achievement that must be met before individuals are loved.
Because people want to be loved, these "conditions of worth" are internalized
and propel them to become something other than what they truly are.
Large portions of desire and experience are blunted and suppressed in order
for them to meet these conditions, with the result that they are aware of
doing what they don't really want to do, not knowing what it is they really
want to do, and they are generally miserable.
Rogerian or client-centered therapists offer clients total acceptance of
themselves without conditions of worth (Rogers, 1951). Such unconditional
positive regard is accompanied by the therapist's attempt to see the world
through the client's eyes, thus encouraging clients to view their own experience
as something of value. Client-centered therapists neither interpret nor
advise. Rather, they reflect or mirror what clients are experiencing without
evaluation, in order to enable clients both to clarify their experience and to
accept their feelings. As clients come to know and approve of their true
thoughts and feelings, they are more able to make free and genuinely constructive
decisions.
For existential therapists, self-acceptance alone is no guarantor of either
freedom or free choice, nor is the potential for self-actualization biologically
endowed. Rather, these are gradually acquired through the individual's
struggles with responsibility. Existential therapists, as seen encourage
clients to view their psychological problems as being of their own
making: individuals themselves are the sources of their own difficulties.
Viktor Frankl (1975) first described two techniques that are now increasingly
used by existential therapists and that underscore individual responsibility.
The first is paradoxical intention, wherein the therapist encourages
clients to indulge in and even exaggerate their symptoms. For example,
someone who "just can't resist ice cream" will be encouraged to eat massive
amounts of it in order to be convinced that he really does control his intake.
Similarly, deflection involves directing the client's attention away from his
symptoms and pointing out how much he could be doing and enjoying if he
were not so preoccupied with his troubles.
As a result of taking responsibility for themselves, clients become more aware of their choices and values, and their lives and interpersonal relations become more open, honest, and meaningful.
Gestalt therapy similarly underscores taking responsibility for one's life
by living in the "here and now." Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy,
felt that the single aim of this form of treatment was "to impart a fraction of
the meaning of the word, now. Tome, nothing exists except the now" (Perls,
1970, p. 4). While Gestalt therapists may examine their clients' past, they do
so entirely with reference to the present, and in order to enable clients to experience
the present more fully and openly. Exercises are devised that enable
clients to experience themselves with greater immediacy and to take
responsibility for their feelings and behaviors. Thus, clients are encouraged
to communicate in the present tense, and to avoid the past and future
tenses. They are instructed to use "I" language, rather than "it" language,
which further underscores their own responsibility for their experiences.
And they are encouraged to speak to each other, rather than at each other.
These techniques and others heighten the sense of immediacy-of "now-ness"-
that clients experience, enabling them to capture their true feelings
and take responsibility for both feelings and actions. Confronting their
experience in this manner allows them to feel "whole" rather than
fragmented, and frees energy that would otherwise be used for self-fragmentation.
Other humanistic and existential therapies, such as encounter therapies,
borrow heavily on these techniques and use them in an eclectic manner.
The latter therapies, however, are characterized by their intensity over a
brief period of time. Encounter groups, for example, often meet on a weekend
and provide very intense experiences that are directed toward heightening
feelings and examining attitudes and beliefs. But because these and
other "mod" therapies have undergone little evaluation, their overall effectiveness
is yet unknown and, regardless of their popularity, we have nothing
more to say about them.
With this brief overview of treatment modalities behind us, we now turn
to the treatments that are especially useful for particular kinds of psychological
problems like love and sex addiction.
Cognitive and behavioral therapies are specific treatments for quite specific
problems. Those therapies assume that the presenting problem is the problem
that required treatment, and that nothing else requires treatment.
Global therapies, on the other hand, all assume that the presenting problem
is merely the symptom of some larger, underlying disorder. Much as fever is
not itself the entire illness but rather a symptom of a deeper malaise, so are
psychological symptoms merely the outcropping of underlying conflicts and
erroneous perceptions. It is the latter that require treatment because they
tend to radiate a host of cognitive and behavioral difficulties.
Global therapies are mainly those that are derived from the psychodynamic
approaches, as well as humanistic and existential approaches. Each
of these therapies assumes that psychological distress arises because something
is fundamentally wrong with the client's personality. They differ, as we
will shortly see, in their view of precisely what is wrong and how it can best
be remedied.
Classical Psychoanalysis
The heartland of psychological distress in the psychoanalytic
view lies in the anxiety and self-defeating postures that are generated
by unacceptable impulses. These impulses are repressed and
otherwise restrained from consciousness by the host of coping mechanisms
that can be generated by an enormously creative and flexible mind. But ultimately,
these defenses are costly, for they sap the strength of the ego and
continue to leave residual anxieties that render individuals miserable. The
solution for Freud, and for those who followed his tradition, was to make
conscious the unconscious impulses so that acceptable means of gratifying
them could be found.
With the help of the therapist, the client seeks to define his or her unconscious
motivations. Classical psychoanalysts require their clients to lie on a
couch in order to minimize their attention to the therapist, relax them, and
enable them to engage in free association. Clients are instructed to say what ever comes to mind, regardless of how ridiculous or embarrassing it is, and
without attempting to censor. The rationale behind this procedure is that
the unconscious has a logic of its own that is manifested in these seemingly
disconnected and meaningless associations. If the client associates freely,
the unconscious motives and conflicts will reveal themselves through these
disconnected verbal threads. The analysis of dreams proceeds in the same
manner. There, the client associates to the content and theme of the dream
and, in the process, uncovers its unconscious meaning.
Unconscious impulses and conflicts do not yield easily or readily to this
form of exploration. As the client begins to confront a conflict, he or she is
likely to resist going further. Such resistance can take many forms, such as
changing the subject, starting an argument with the therapist, coming late,
and even missing appointments. Trained not to take these matters personally,
the therapist patiently interprets the resistance just as any other symptoms
might be interpreted. These interpretations bring the client back to the
"work of analysis."
As a psychoanalysis progresses, clients find themselves revealing things to
their therapists that they had never revealed to anyone before, not even to
themselves. Understandably, the relationship to the therapist becomes
richly emotional and complex. And although the therapist remains impassive,
clients react to him or her with intense love, dependency, biting anger,
or rebellion, and often all at once. As we can see, psychoanalysts
view this behavior as the transference of conflicts and frustrations that were
experienced with parents during early childhood, onto the therapist. The
analysis of transference, because it is immediate and real, is a major opportunity
for self-understanding and growth during psychoanalysis.
Psychodynamic Variants
Psychoanalysis is a time-consuming, costly, and cumbersome method of
treatment. Moreover, not all therapists believe in
all of its basic assumptions. As a result, a variety of psycho dynamically oriented
therapies have been developed. All of them retain the notion that unconscious
impulses and conflicts spawn anxiety and other forms of human
misery, and that insight into those conflicts is the goal of treatment. But the
kinds of impulses that are examined, and the ways in which they can be
made conscious, vary enormously from therapist to therapist. In general,
modern psychodynamic therapies differ from classical psychoanalysis in
three ways.
First, the therapist is much more active, not merely in interpreting
unconscious material, but also in offering advice and suggesting constructive
options.
Second, these therapies are more efficient and less time
consuming. Whereas classical psychoanalysis required the client to lie on
the couch five times a week for several years, modern psychodynamic therapies
are conducted face-to-face, commonly no more than once or twice a
week.
Newer psychodynamic therapies concentrate on the present rather than the
past, and emphasize current social relationships rather than earlier ones.
The very content of these therapies may differ widely, according to the
orientation of the therapist. Whereas classical psychoanalysis is concerned
mainly with the dynamics of sexual and aggressive impulses,
Jungian therapists take a larger view of the psyche and may, allude
to a variety of archetypes, unconscious materials, and dynamics. Adlerian
therapists stress the will to superiority, and Sullivanian therapists examine
current social relationships. Many psychodynamic therapists are eclectic,
meaning that they use insights from each school of treatment in accord with
the needs of individual cases. These newer and briefer forms of treatment
are among the most widely practiced and available today (Parloff, 1976).
Humanistic and Existential Treatments
The treatments that derive from humanistic and existential theories of personality
rely less on illuminating unconscious processes, and considerably
more on "being oneself." Rogerian therapy, as discussed earlier, starts
with the assumption that humans are innately good and motivated to actualize
their various potentials. The social environments (especially their families)
in which they live, however, do not often recognize that innate
goodness, and they commonly lay down unrealistic standards regarding performance
and achievement that must be met before individuals are loved.
Because people want to be loved, these "conditions of worth" are internalized
and propel them to become something other than what they truly are.
Large portions of desire and experience are blunted and suppressed in order
for them to meet these conditions, with the result that they are aware of
doing what they don't really want to do, not knowing what it is they really
want to do, and they are generally miserable.
Rogerian or client-centered therapists offer clients total acceptance of
themselves without conditions of worth (Rogers, 1951). Such unconditional
positive regard is accompanied by the therapist's attempt to see the world
through the client's eyes, thus encouraging clients to view their own experience
as something of value. Client-centered therapists neither interpret nor
advise. Rather, they reflect or mirror what clients are experiencing without
evaluation, in order to enable clients both to clarify their experience and to
accept their feelings. As clients come to know and approve of their true
thoughts and feelings, they are more able to make free and genuinely constructive
decisions.
For existential therapists, self-acceptance alone is no guarantor of either
freedom or free choice, nor is the potential for self-actualization biologically
endowed. Rather, these are gradually acquired through the individual's
struggles with responsibility. Existential therapists, as seen encourage
clients to view their psychological problems as being of their own
making: individuals themselves are the sources of their own difficulties.
Viktor Frankl (1975) first described two techniques that are now increasingly
used by existential therapists and that underscore individual responsibility.
The first is paradoxical intention, wherein the therapist encourages
clients to indulge in and even exaggerate their symptoms. For example,
someone who "just can't resist ice cream" will be encouraged to eat massive
amounts of it in order to be convinced that he really does control his intake.
Similarly, deflection involves directing the client's attention away from his
symptoms and pointing out how much he could be doing and enjoying if he
were not so preoccupied with his troubles.
As a result of taking responsibility for themselves, clients become more aware of their choices and values, and their lives and interpersonal relations become more open, honest, and meaningful.
Gestalt therapy similarly underscores taking responsibility for one's life
by living in the "here and now." Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy,
felt that the single aim of this form of treatment was "to impart a fraction of
the meaning of the word, now. Tome, nothing exists except the now" (Perls,
1970, p. 4). While Gestalt therapists may examine their clients' past, they do
so entirely with reference to the present, and in order to enable clients to experience
the present more fully and openly. Exercises are devised that enable
clients to experience themselves with greater immediacy and to take
responsibility for their feelings and behaviors. Thus, clients are encouraged
to communicate in the present tense, and to avoid the past and future
tenses. They are instructed to use "I" language, rather than "it" language,
which further underscores their own responsibility for their experiences.
And they are encouraged to speak to each other, rather than at each other.
These techniques and others heighten the sense of immediacy-of "now-ness"-
that clients experience, enabling them to capture their true feelings
and take responsibility for both feelings and actions. Confronting their
experience in this manner allows them to feel "whole" rather than
fragmented, and frees energy that would otherwise be used for self-fragmentation.
Other humanistic and existential therapies, such as encounter therapies,
borrow heavily on these techniques and use them in an eclectic manner.
The latter therapies, however, are characterized by their intensity over a
brief period of time. Encounter groups, for example, often meet on a weekend
and provide very intense experiences that are directed toward heightening
feelings and examining attitudes and beliefs. But because these and
other "mod" therapies have undergone little evaluation, their overall effectiveness
is yet unknown and, regardless of their popularity, we have nothing
more to say about them.
With this brief overview of treatment modalities behind us, we now turn
to the treatments that are especially useful for particular kinds of psychological
problems like love and sex addiction.
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR sex or Love Addiction TREATMENT COUNSELING OR THERAPY anywhere in the world...KEEP READING here!
http://sexual-addiction-counseling.weebly.com
Of course you know the sex addiction treatment method I recommend click here!
http://theliberatormethod.com/Welcome.html
http://sexual-addiction-counseling.weebly.com
Of course you know the sex addiction treatment method I recommend click here!
http://theliberatormethod.com/Welcome.html