Читать книгу Abnormal Psychology - William J. Ray - Страница 62

In this section, I want to discuss three approaches to the psychological treatment of mental disorders. These are the psychodynamic approach, the existential-humanistic approach, and the cognitive behavioral approach. These approaches were developed somewhat independently and often in opposition to one another. For that reason, I will initially discuss each independently. I will introduce you to a historical understanding of the approach including its broad principles and then present one specific treatment that has been tested in a scientific manner.

Different versions of dynamic psychotherapy have been shown to be effective for a number of disorders, especially the personality disorders.

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Before the middle of the twentieth century, very little formal research had been performed to see how effective psychological interventions were. This was also true of traditional medical procedures. Beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, a movement started to determine the effectiveness of both medical and psychological treatments in a scientific manner. In medicine, this came to be known as evidence-based medicine. In psychology, the terms empirically based treatments and empirically based principles refer to treatments and their aspects for which there is scientific evidence of effectiveness.

As researchers and clinicians began to focus more on approaches and principles for which there was scientific evidence that they were effective, there began a movement to develop effective treatments for particular disorders. There has been more willingness to integrate techniques from the three different approaches as well as from other perspectives. For example, in the chapter on personality disorders, you will see that one of the most researched treatments—dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)—is based on techniques from each of the three approaches described in this chapter. This effective treatment uses aspects of cognitive-behavioral techniques, dynamic techniques, and humanistic-existential techniques.

psychodynamic perspective: approach to psychological therapy that emphasizes how behaviors and experience may be influenced by internal processes that are outside of awareness, often due to internal conflicts