SOWK 7398 - Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Three credit hours.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy provides an overview of Freudian drive/structural theory and the central concepts of early psychoanalytic thinking. The basic principles of psychodynamic psychotherapy will then be covered with a review of how certain concepts proposed by Freud have been adhered to, changed, modified, or abandoned altogether. The theoretical basis for dynamic therapy will then be covered along with a brief overview of current schools of psychodynamic theory. An evidence-based ego-psycholoical/object relations approach to assessment and treatment of neurotic, borderline, and psychotic disorders is then be presented. The ego psychological component will address the assessment of person-in-situation factors; issues related to adaptation; and ego functions, including defense mechanisms that span the range of maturehigher/ lower level-psychotic. Particular emphasis will be placed on the object relations component of this theory, focusing on the developmental trajectory of object relations and specific fixation points that result in character pathology, organized at a psychotic, borderline or neurotic level.