There’s no denying that Freud’s theories are deeply embedded in the fabric of modern life. However, as Robert Rowland Smith explores in “In Defence of Psychoanalysis,” published in the Winter 2010 issue of Intelligent Life, Freudian methods, particularly psychoanalysis, have lately fallen out of favor.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) has in turn rise in popularity. CBT seeks to improve a patient’s inner state by modifying outward behaviors, an inverse approach to that of psychoanalysis. While psychoanalysis investigates the root cause of a problem, which often relates back to childhood, CBT addresses the present-day issue. As compared to psychoanalysis, CBT is usually short-term – most treatments are limited to about thirty sessions.
The quick-fix mentality of modern life makes CBT understandably appealing. However, as Smith states: “Relationships are fundamental to happiness. And so a science that has the courage to include the doctor’s relationship with the patient within the treatment itself, and to work with it, is a science already modelling the solution it prescribes.”
Click here to read the entire article.
2 Comments
in RS faith and sant mat, the mind talked about seems to be different from the mind talked about by a psycho analyst, the later talks about the material mind whereas material mind is simply an instrument in the santmat analysis……
I have established an analogy between practice of meditation and psychoanalysis.
Julian B. Rotter (1970) writes in his book Clinical Psychology “Other professions which overlap clinical psychology are those of the psychiatrist, social worker, lawyer, speech pathologist, and religious worker. All these professions are concerned in one way or another with the individual’s adjustment to a special set of circumstances”.
Now the question arises what does a religious worker does to help an individual for his/her adjustment with himself/herself and with the society? The one apparent answer is guiding people to perform devotional exercises.
Perhaps answer lies in the following lines:
Psychoanalysis emphasizes free association, the phenomenon of transference, and the development of insight. Psychoanalysis helps a person understand himself/herself better. The goal of psychoanalysis is to acquire self-understanding and knowledge of the sources of anxiety.
According to Swami Vivekananda, “During meditation the mind is at first apt to wander. But let any desire whatever arise in the mind, we must sit calmly and watch what sort of ideas are coming. By continuing to watch in that way the mind becomes calm, and there are no more thoughts waves in it. Those things that we have previously thought deeply have stored into unconscious mind and therefore these come up at the surface of conscious mind during meditation.” We may call this ‘auto-catharsis’ sort of free-association, unconscious mind talking to conscious mind. Meditation provides us insight, understanding of self and increases our psychological strength. So we can draw some analogy between practice of meditation and psychoanalysis. .
According to Swami Vishnu Devananda:”Through meditation, the play of the mind is witnessed. In the early stages nothing more can be done than to gain understanding as the ego is observed constantly asserting itself. But in times its game become familiar, and one begins to prefer the peace of contentment. When the ego is subdued, energies can then be utilized constructively for personal growth and the service of others”.
According to Radhasoami Faith: “…strong desires, embedded in the mind, are awakened in Bhajan (a type of meditation) by the current of Shabd (sound).