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.
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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.
"One of the fallacies I wanted to correct (with the book)
was that there isn't empirical support (for the psychodynamic
model)," Huprich said. "My hope is that more people treat
this perspective with the respect that it deserves. I think
it's important that there are people doing brain scan research
and finding things that are relevant to this model of the
mind."
Psychodynamic therapy is most commonly contrasted with
an approach known as cognitive behavior therapy. While
the former looks at unconscious influences on behavior
as they interfere with relationships, the latter tries
to identify and understand irrational thoughts and feelings
that are part of behavior patterns.
"There are elements of both that seem to be ingredients
of all good treatment," Huprich said.
They share an emphasis on a good relationship between
patient and therapist, and both involve the patient reaching
a resolution and making a change.
Cognitive behavior therapy works for many, and it's more
time-effective - something insurance companies like. But,
the improvement doesn't always last. Psychodynamic therapy
delves deep, identifying the core conflict and the part
of the mind where the problem originated, before finding
ways to resolve the problem.
Real change, Huprich said, happens at the psychodynamic
level, when you tap into what your brain has been up to
when you weren't paying attention.
"Our brain doesn't stop until we're dead," Huprich said.
That's why we can move on, resigned to not remembering
that word on the tip of our tongue, only to recall it spontaneously
two days later. Unconsciously, the brain never let it go.
By the same token, people will mentally try to relive
an event until they master it, Huprich explains. If that
event happened when the person was a child and that person
never resolved it, they'll adopt repetitive behavior patterns
throughout their life as their brain continues to try to
work through it. Meanwhile, old conflicts and old
desires get played out in present-day relationships. And
all of this happens without their realizing it.
Understanding how one situation relates to the other helps
the patient look at current relationships and feelings
in a new context.
Psychodynamic researchers are a minority in an academic
community that's generally more attuned to the cognitive
behavior approach. But over the past 10-20 years, Huprich
said, they've shown there are some important ideas at the
core of psychodynamic treatment.
"I think what's happening is — even people who are
skeptics of Freudian theory and Freudian ideas— are
starting to recognize that there is something real about
the model and the treatment that cannot be left unattended
anymore," Huprich said.
