Depth psychology

The presence of an unconscious is controversial. In the Depth psychology It is assumed that there are conscious processes as well as unconscious ones that have a strong effect on human behavior, although they are not perceived.

These unconscious mental processes should gradually be uncovered in order to gain knowledge about the behavior and needs of a person. Therefore, depth psychology wants to go as far below the surface of consciousness as possible in order to analyze unconscious processes that could affect conscious life.

What is depth psychology?

Depth psychology wants to penetrate as far below the surface of consciousness as possible in order to analyze unconscious processes that could influence conscious life.

In this sense, philosophers such as Nietzsche, Leibniz or Schopenhauer assume a psyche that is hidden. The first scientific approach to a systematic investigation was made by Sigmund Freud, who founded psychoanalysis. He dealt extensively with human behavior and experience in order to discover certain patterns in them, for which he developed an appropriate treatment method.

He put forward the thesis that repressed and unconscious feelings make you sick and can even cause physical symptoms. Freud attributed the conflicts particularly strongly to the suppression of sexual needs, which are then converted into other energy. If this does not happen, however, physical and mental disorders occur, of which emotional symptoms such as anxiety and depression are just a few. The treatment that he suggested involves the psychotherapist sitting behind the patient, out of sight, so that he can concentrate fully on himself.

Eugen Bleuler, a Swiss psychiatrist who also coined the terms schizophrenia and autism, developed the term depth psychology himself. He did not assume any separation between illness and mental health. One of the greatest exponents of depth psychology was then Carl Gustav Jung, who assumed archetypes that unconsciously guide behavior in every human being. Ultimately, processes of drive regulation and conflict processing were assumed, which are always the basis of conscious behavior.

With this, depth psychology was soon divided into three larger schools. In addition to the analytical psychology developed by Freud, Alfred Adler soon launched individual psychology. All schools follow the thesis that in the depths of the unconscious there are psychological processes of drives and similar motivational processes that differ from school to school as the respective driving force. Freud assumed the sexual instinct, Jung, a student of Freud, assumed an unspecific instinctual energy and Adler assumed human beings' simple striving for power.

Treatments & therapies

Depth psychology is therefore not synonymous with psychoanalysis. They differ in treatment and, accordingly, in form, goal and duration. While psychoanalysis wants to change the entire personality, the treatment often takes place lying down on the familiar couch and lasts for several years, depth psychological treatment takes place while sitting and does not last more than two years. In doing so, she pursues the goal of discovering conflicts B. lead to depression without wanting to reshape or fundamentally change the patient.

Humans usually develop so-called relationship patterns in childhood. These determine how he approaches other people or perceives the environment. By the time he developed these patterns, they made sense and determined responses. They only become a problem when the behavior is suddenly inappropriate.

Disputes and upbringing by the parents, as the most important caregivers in childhood, are particularly maintained according to a certain pattern and determine contact with other people in later life and also the relationships that a person enters into. Often the same mistakes are made over and over again without people being able to interpret this behavior themselves.

The relationship that the patient then builds up with the psychotherapist, who tries to uncover these patterns and make them aware through the treatment, is similar. This is called transference. It is one of the most important means of such therapy.

A transfer is always to be sought where there are ideas, expectations, fears or wishes that have previously formed and are animated again and again like a template. These patterns and fears are deliberately revived and evoked in therapy. The psychotherapist pays more attention to his own behavior, to his emotional reaction to the patient. In psychoanalysis this is called countertransference. It is also used for treatment.

The aim is then not a complete analysis of a patient's previous life, but solely to change certain unfavorable living conditions so that complaints and symptoms disappear. The symptoms are therefore not treated directly, but their causes are resolved in the treatment of the deeper layers.

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Diagnosis & examination methods

The depth psychology is used in people who z. B. suffer from sleep disorders, depression, concentration disorders, obsessions, acute crises, states of exhaustion or disorders of sexual functions. Even people who have had stressful experiences behind them, in the sense of a trauma, can find help in depth psychology. These methods have been scientifically proven to be extremely successful. In contrast, patients with eating disorders or acute anxiety disorders are less suitable for deep psychological treatment.

Most therapies follow the usual pattern. From time to time, however, the psychotherapist also recommends taking medication temporarily, which have an effect on the mind and psyche and must always be prescribed by a doctor. These include various psychotropic drugs that are useful in particularly severe crises in order to make the patient more stable in advance and to enable treatment that does not run the risk of being blocked by psychological attacks and breakdowns.

Depth psychology can take place as an outpatient or inpatient therapy. For the latter conditions there are psychosomatic clinics that specialize in this. Such measures are appropriate if the person concerned z. B. needs a certain distance to his everyday life, job or his family. In therapy, the patient can then concentrate on the treatment in peace and gain the courage to change.