EMU psychology professor delves into Freud's psychodynamic therapy in new book

For psychologists like Steven Huprich, an invitation to the International Psychoanalytic Association's research training program is a nice honor, a professional highlight. The 10-day program in London gave Huprich, an Eastern Michigan psychology professor, a chance to talk shop with some of the best-known psychoanalytic researchers in the world.

SO, TELL ME ABOUT IT: Steven Huprich, an EMU psychology professor, sits in the chair while Matti Keinanen, a senior lecturer in psychiatry and clinical psychology with the Finnish Student Health Service, tries out the couch made famous by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Huprich was one of 24 participants from around the world selected to participte in the International Psychoanalytic Association's research training program in London. Part of the 10-day program included dinner at the Sigmund Freud home and museum. Photo by Timothy Keough

Then came the unforgettable part — a brush with the best-known psychoanalyst in history.

On the final night of the program, the participants had dinner at the Sigmund Freud home and museum, and then took turns posing for pictures while sitting in Freud's chair and reclining on Freud's couch.

"It was surreal," said Huprich, one of 24 participants from around the world selected for the program. "Especially when I had a chance to lie on the couch. What a special opportunity, to occupy that physical space and (to know) all that it had meant."

The modern psychological and psychiatric communities, Huprich said, don't give Freud the credit he deserves. True, some of his ideas haven't panned out. And because so many of them involved sexuality, they've long carried a whiff of sensationalism.

But, as Huprich outlines in his new book, "Psychodynamic Therapy: Conceptual and Empirical Foundations," (Routledge, 2009), research has shown that when it comes to the unconscious mind and the basic drives and desires that influence human behavior, Freud knew his stuff.

His ideas are at the foundation of what's known as psychodynamic therapy.

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