I have many times spoken to people that have told me that they would like to receive professional help and they talk about the psychologist, of the psychiatrist and the psychoanalyst as we were the same, but with different names. They also think that we also prescribe medicine, or that we do hypnosis. I consider this a serious problem of our society, and in the same time a reflection of the little or non importance given to us concerning these professionals that are responsible for the care of our mental health. The regrettable consecuence for this is that many people decide not to look for professional help, because they don’t know what each of us do, and also because there’s still the idea that “this is for crazy people”, product of disinformation and ignorance. Therefore lets make a brief review on the differences between these three professionals, so that when we need help, we know exactly whom to look for and why. In the first place we have the psychologist, who studies the professional career of psychology in university. Psychology is the science that studies the behavior and other phenomenon of the human mind. The psychologist centers his work on the following aspects: cognitive (thoughts, memory, intelligence, perception, etc) emotional-affective and conduct. By the same way psychologist can belong to different psychological models, that is to say that it depends on the psychotherapist model (the style that he offers), among them we have: cognitive-behaviorisms that work from the reformulation of the interpretation of supposed hypothesis and believes that generate our emotional disturbance, personal, familiar, laboral, etc. Gestaltgics that focus there work mostly on emotional aspects, looking forward to closing the circle or close the gestalt, that the experienced conflicts on the past could have generated, working with them in the here and now. The Systemics who work in function to an integral analysis of the different subsystems that conform a person, such as family, friends, the laboral environment, etc. These are only three of the many psychological models that exist. Each model counts with its own way of interpreting the problem that the person is passing through, for which they use different therapeutic technics. There are psychotherapist schools for the many models mentioned before, that are encharged of forming psychotherapist in a period of two years aproximately, for which it is not necessary to be a psychologist. It is important that patients and people that are interested in receiving psychological help learn about the model with which the therapist to whom they wish to attend works. It is also our obligation to instruct and give examples about our work from the beginning, for many theorics sustain that you can’t affirm that one model is better and more effective than the other in treatments, and that this depends mostly in the ability of the therapist. One can affirm that one model can be more effective than the others in the treatment of some problems or disturbances, for example, cognitive-behaviorism therapy: in depression, compulsive-obsessive disorders and panic disorders. Psychodynamic therapy: on disociative disorders, etc. Sistematic therapy in a disfunctional familiar dynamic, etc. On the other hand we have the psychoanalysts (Psychoanalysis was founded by the world wide known Sigmund Freud), who received their knowledge in a psychoanalysis institute, (after having achieved professional studies in any carrier, not necessarily psychology). The Psychoanalysts consider that the symptoms that generate a disorder are generated by unsolved conflicts in the first state of the psychosexual development, that stay in the latent state in the unconscious and the solution is found in that the person rises to the conscience state that which generated the mental conflict and to become aware of it by himself (with the guide of the therapist ofcourse). The psychoanalysts state that the mind is composed (in the second topic of Freud) by three structures: Super Ego, (conformed by all those social norms that are basically learned through parents, school teachers, etc). Ego (the conscient state). Finally, Id, composed by all our desires or life impulses (Eros) or of death (Thanatos). The Super Ego (the structure of censure) and the Id (structure without censure) in being totally opposed, find themselves in constant conflict most of the time between “what we want to do and what we should or have to do”. For example: “I feel very much like approaching that person and kissing her, but, I should not, because they’ll think bad about me”. The State of tension that the Ego experiences (for being the intermediary between the Super Ego and the Id) takes it to generate defense mechanism to protect itself (like for example repression, projection, etc) that block the mental energy, forcing it to stay in the unconscious (causing at the same time the state of neurosis or emotional disorder), of which the person is not conscient. This constitutes the real challenge for the psychoanalysts, and is the center of their therapy, recognizing and managing those defense mechanisms so that the mental energy leaves its latent state and manifests itself, and in this way solve the problem. I personally consider that the Psychoanalysis theory is of great importance and offers great explanation of the function of the mind. Nevertheless, I do not recommend their therapies (this is just my opinion) for they are of long duration and (may)? of the therapeutic procedures turn up being counterproductive. This was also sustained by Albert Ellis himself and Aaron Beck, fathers of cognitive psychology whom in their beginnings were partidaries of psychoanalysis. Never the less I will offer further explanation on this respect in another opportunity. Finally we have the psychiatrist. To be a Psychiatrist you have to study medicine and then specialize on psychiatry, that is to say that it is one more medical specialty, as is also cardiology, traumatology, etc. The psychiatrist centers his work with a person from the biological point of view. For which its treatment is pharmacological. This is due to the fact that all mental disorders have a neurochemical base and are the result of an unbalance, like for example the one that I explained in the publication on depression. NONE OF THE THREE ARE FOR “CRAZY PEOPLE”. All people have problems of different characters and difficulty, and we all have the right to receive specialized help. When I was a teenager I was against psychologist, for I believed that it was enough with the help of my friends and family (and it is true that family and friends are the main aspect for coming out of any problem) but then I realized that there were problems that they were not able to identify and manage (like in the case of depression, which is one of the disorders of mayor prevalence), not because they did not want, but because they did not count with the knowledge and preparation with which a specialist counts. Lets create conscience and dedication for what mental health is. In this way we can help ourselves and others when they really need it.
No comments:
Post a Comment