/90-39_files/90-3900001im.jpg" width="692" height="919"
useMap="#Map">
History
and Systems of Psychology
PSY502
VU
Lesson
39
MODERN
TRENDS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL
TREATMENT
The
psychological method of treatment is an
approach in which the patient is
not treated with
medicines.
Psychological
approach may be divided
into:
·
Psychodynamic
methodologies
·
Behavioral
methodologies
·
Cognitive
methodologies
·
Humanistic
methodologies
·
Group
methodologies of treatment
The
first three methodologies have
already been discussed. The
fourth approach in psychological
methods
is
the Humanistic
approach. As
you remember Carl Rogers
was one of its practitioners.
Humanistic
therapists
view themselves more as
guides than therapists. The
assumption is that a person
has the potential
to
get well but he just
needs the way to be shown to
mental health. Client Centred therapy is
one such
method
of humanistic method of treatment.
Treatment
of less severe forms of mental
diseases may also be done in
groups. Where this approach
is
adopted,
it is called Group
therapy. It
may take the form of a group
of people taking part in a drama, as
in
psychodrama,
a technique developed by J.L. Moreno. Or
a group may discuss their
problems together. One
specialized
form of group therapy is called Family
therapy, where the focus may be the
family of the client
or
the patient.
Group
therapy is a form of psychotherapy in
which the therapist has regular
meetings with a small group
of
individuals.
The purpose of group therapy is to
assist each of these
individual in his or her
emotional
development
and assist him to solve
his or her personal problem.
People may choose group
therapy for
several
reasons which include reasons
such as group therapy being cheaper
than individual therapies
since
the
cost is divided among group
members. Another reason may
be that group therapy allows
interaction
with
other people giving more
insights into how people
solve their problems
effectively and a chance
to
learn
from these. In addition,
group members receive support
from others in the group.
Family
therapy is a form of psychotherapy that
involves all the members of a
nuclear or extended family.
It
may
be conducted by a pair of therapists
which often may be a man and
a woman. This is usually done
when
problems related to gender
roles in the family are
creating trouble. Some types
of family therapies
are
based
on behavioral or psychodynamic principles while
most of the others are based
on family systems
theory.
Family system theory regards the entire
family as the unit of treatment, and
emphasizes such vital
factors
as relationships and communication patterns
among members of the family.
The purpose of family
therapy
is to identify and treat family
problems that cause
upheavals in the family
life.
Comparing
all these methods together, a
research undertaken recently, involving
one hundred and eighty
six
thousand
people who undertook psychotherapy, it
was revealed that Cognitive
therapy had a success rate
of
95%:
Behavioral therapy had a success rate of
85% followed by Psychodynamic methods
having a success
rate
of 80% and so on.
b)
Biological Approaches
Now
let us look at some other
methods that we include in biological
approaches to treat disorders they
deal
with
more severe kinds of mental
illnesses. One noticeable fact in this
regard is, as pointed out
earlier, that
these
methods are employed for
more severe and chronic
cases of mental
disorders.
87
/90-39_files/90-3900002im.jpg" width="692" height="4"
useMap="#Map">
History
and Systems of Psychology
PSY502
VU
The
first major mode of treatment in
biological approach is Drug
therapy. This
is control of mental
disorders
through drugs.
Some
such drugs include:
i.
Anti-psychotic drugs: Drugs which
are used for severe
cases of psychosis.
ii.
Anti-depressant drugs: Drugs which are
used to relax the patient.
iii.
Anti-anxiety drugs: Drugs which are
used to help anxiety.
Another
method apart from
prescribing drugs is called
Electroconvulsive
therapy or ECT
in short. In this
method,
mild shocks are given to the
head of the patient to help
him rid his mental
disease. Usually a shock
of
70 to 150 volts is administered to the
head of a severely sick patient.
Scientists and psychiatrists
are still
unable
to understand the phenomenon behind the
success of ECT.
The
third method in this category is
Psycho-surgery. This
method involves surgically removing a
part of
the
brain. This method is very rarely used
today and only as a last
resort. These are the three
major methods
of
treatment using the biological
model.
88