Behavioral Therapy and Psychoanalysis are two of the various means of therapy that seek to help the individual with psychological and behavioral disorders, and in personal and social development.

Behavioral Therapy and Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a therapy of the unconscious that seeks to find and solve psychic problems that are often caused by childhood traumas and that impair daily life. This therapy was developed by the psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), while behavioral therapy is a psychological approach aimed at investigating the conditioning of behavior in accordance with environmental stimuli.

It was developed from the Behaviorist theory of John Broadus Watson (1878-1958) considered the "father" of Behaviorism, however, it was B. F. Skinner who created the theories and techniques that are applied in behavior analysis. Theories Behaviorism is an area of psychology that studies the behavior of humans and animals, and it is one of the three main streams of psychology along with form psychology (Gestalt) and analytical psychology (psychoanalysis).

Its study is based on objective data: "In the Behaviorism view, the individual builds his behavior patterns according to the stimuli he receives from his environment". In other words, the social, family, cultural and religious background will influence the development of personality and the way one acts in each environment. It is from one's perceptions and interpretations that beliefs and ways of acting will define individual behavior.

Education, Behavioral Therapy and Psychoanalysis

So you can see that behavior patterns change according to the place or the group of people you are with. Nobody acts the same way at home and at work, or at a party and at church, for example. In a child's education, the influence of the environment in which he/she grows up is even more evident; he/she tends to repeat patterns that he/she perceives in his/her parents, and later in his/her teachers and schoolmates.

The American psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck, considered the father of cognitive behavioral therapy observed that negative thoughts which he called "automatic thoughts" about oneself such as, I can't, I'm notable, etc., generate destructive behavior, and it is therefore necessary to identify these "automatic thoughts" in order to overcome them.

In most cases this kind of negative thinking about oneself is the result of the environment and the negative people one lives with and the devaluation suffered by them. Most people are always worried about what others think of you, and this is a mistake.

Behavioral Therapy and Psychoanalysis: solution and understanding

Although behavioral therapy aims to solve the "external problem," a large part of behavioral disorders can be the result of some mental disorder such as fear or trauma, for example, phobias (fear of rats or spiders, for example), stress that leads to nail biting or hair pulling, among others.

Psychoanalysis is considered a field of theoretical and practical studies that investigates and seeks to understand implicit meanings, this therapy is therefore dedicated to what lies beyond the objective. For Freud, it is in the human mind that the answers to internal and external conflicts are found; for him, the physical symptom is the result of a conflict that existed before in the psyche and it is by discovering the origin of the problem that the individual can solve it.

He was convinced that by becoming aware of unconscious thoughts, "the patient could release traumas, emotions, and repressed experiences and, through self-knowledge, learn to cope better with himself and others and be cured of mental disorders, neuroses, and psychoses.

Key Differences

Psychoanalysis seeks to bring to consciousness everything that is in the unconscious that compromises the individual's physical and mental health. Whereas behavioral therapy focuses on the problem in the present moment and presenting itself externally.

It is possible to say then that psychoanalysis seeks to resolve internal conflicts that manifest themselves externally, and behavioral therapy is dedicated to resolving external patterns of behavior that have been assimilated in a negative way by the individual.

Psychoanalysis Techniques

The main technique of psychoanalysis is Free Association, which consists in the analisand speaking freely whatever comes to mind without censorship or fear that what appears to him or her may seem unimportant. For Freud, the simple fact of speaking already releases psychic tensions and relieves the individual.

"When I ask a patient to dispose of all reflection and tell me all that passes through his mind, ... I consider myself justified in inferring that what he tells me, of the most harmless and arbitrary appearance, has relation to his pathological state" (Freud, "The Interpretation of Dreams", 1900, p.525).

For him, when we freely associate thoughts it is possible to access the unconscious where everything is "filed", the repressed emotions and pains that the conscious mind no longer has access to and that are the origin of the physical and mental disorder. It is from these "disconnected" thoughts that therapist and analyzer begin to associate and organize them to reach the solution to the problem.

Reassembling Ideas, Behavioral Therapy and Psychoanalysis

This "reassembling" of ideas offers a new meaning of the traumatizing event or of the repressed desire to the analyzing person, providing a kind of "healing through the word".

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Different from the psychoanalytic technique that aims to access the unconscious in order to find the origin of the problem, behavioral therapy has a wide range of techniques, because for each type of behavior that needs to be modified, there is a different technique.

Modeling "According to Atkinson (2002), modeling consists in reinforcing only variations of responses that deviate in the direction desired by the experimenter (...) it is effective in overcoming fears and anxieties because it provides an opportunity to observe another person go through the anxiety-producing situation without getting hurt".

Modeling/Imitation

"It is the process by which a person learns behaviors by observing and imitating others. It is a very effective method of behavior change, because since observing others is one of the primary human ways of learning, watching people who are exhibiting adaptive behavior teaches better coping strategies to people with maladaptive responses. Exposure "Confronting a feared situation or stimulus.

E.g., the obsessive-compulsive patient is urged to refrain from washing his hands after immersing them in dirty water. Flooding is a modality of in vivo exposure in which a phobic individual is exposed to the most feared object or situation for a prolonged period without opportunity to escape."

Final considerations

Self-observation is a great way to get to know ourselves better and recognize within ourselves patterns of unwanted behaviors, repetitive thoughts, pains, and distressing feelings that cause us physical and mental harm. Regardless of the form of therapy chosen, the important thing is to seek help whenever you feel it is necessary.

References

//blog.cognitive.com/know-what-behavioral-therapy-and-when-to-use-it // //blog.mundopsicologos.com/articles/know-how-behavioral-therapy-works //www.guiadacarreira.com.br/carreira/o-que-faz-um-psicanalista/ //www.psicanaliseclinica.com/metodo-da-associacao-livre-em-psicanalise/ //siteantigo.portaleducacao.com.br/conteudo/artigos/psicologia/diversas-tecnicas-da-terapia-behavioral/11475

This article was written by Gleide Bezerra de Souza ( [email protected] ). She has a degree in Portuguese Language and a post-graduate degree in Psychopedagogy.