Psychoanalysis of Pscychodynamics Behaviourism
Psychoanalysis of Psychodynamics Behaviourism?
A challenge to compare and contract the behaviourist model with the psychodynamic model of understanding beings.
Before attempting any comparative assessment of psychodynamics or behaviourism views, it will be necessary to outline the accepted evolved meanings that may be attached to both terms, assuming for the moment both are addressed to ultimately reaching a greater understanding and awareness of the fundamental nature of ‘wo/man’ using the devised methods of observing behaviour disorders to ‘measure’ the mind and body reaction within the confines of a individual reality and as required modify a perceived ‘problem’ to bring about what may be a changed behaviour patten that is more appropriate to events.
Both models, psychodynamics and behaviourism, have developed within the past hundred years and stem from philosophical schools of early times in an attempt to use reason and argument in search of truth and knowledge of reality, the nature of things and the principles governing existence, perception, human behaviour and the material universe. All of which was limited by a lack of paradigm knowledge and a comprehensive means of describing the often subtle and sublime intuitive inspiration which marks the beginning of greater understanding of why, where, when, and how?
Wo/Mans quest to find answers has led to the development of numerous material measurements to describe what is going on around and within both their self and external environs but there is a handicap contained within such questing which wo/man has always fallen upon. S/he is trapped within a material existence into describing their world in material terms and consequently becomes enmeshed in minutiae that develop into models of ‘reality’ and ‘isms’ which become the battle ground for conflict as different modelled realities struggle for supremacy at a cost of a possible truth contained within the whole. So erroneously, it is the language and tools used which become important not what they can achieve.
The Psychoanalyse model of therapy probably began in earnest with Freud’s attempt to provide a comprehensive theory of the mind and associated treatments for various disorders among the wealthy middle class Austrian ladies of the early 1900’s. This starting point had an influence on his interpretation of behaviour patterns upon which he based a future model and theory; leading to a broader and more diverse theorem of psychodynamics, concentrating on the personality made up of an individuals traits and characteristics in order to produce a ‘cure’ for manifested problems.
Some of the basic tenets of psychodynamics as instigated by Freud form the building blocks upon which the whole study of analysis is based and which is centred on the mind and observed manifested responses within an accepted appropriate reality.
The mind is generally assumed to be composed of two parts, conscious, dealing with the events in a wakeful state – sight, sound, smell, speech and feeling – all manifest in actions. And the ‘unconscious’ part dealing in the autonomic actions often associated with repetitive action like breathing, sleep and memory. This simplistic description of the mind may be considered as the structure of the personality that makes an individual ‘individual’. The following tenets are based on this simple mind model:-
A) Human behaviour is not accidental. It is a result of experience, feeling and memory developed by a continuous process into behavioural patterns often sharpened by painful experiences, the effects of which can be identified and analysed: - known as psychological determinism.
B) The unconscious mind is not a passive storehouse of ideas, experiences etc, It plays a dynamic part in manifested behaviour and uses mental energy to exercise control in achieving results, called the dynamic unconscious.
C) Goal directed dynamics holds that all behaviour is motivated to achieving a goal, often not conscious but instigated by the unconscious mind to bypass the conscious non acceptance. The existence of this has been proved in the treatment of patients with hysteria problems through the use of hypnosis to bypass the conscious minds objection or hindrance in achieving an acceptable state.
D) The foundation of adulthood are built on the experiences of childhood particularly potentially the first five years and hence subsequent behaviour is influenced by such experiences which at the time when there is little critical assessments ability, can cause inappropriate behaviour patterns that may compound each other into adult life. This is the development approach of the person by social and physical interaction and is not totally governed by instinctual needs.
The complexity of behaviour in the mind wo/man model is further explained by the addition of three other components which interact on behaviour, providing the dynamics of personality known as: -
ID, which demands – I WANT, survival.
Ego, which functions to maintain a balance by adjusting external reality within its own needs – TO BE.
Super Ego, brings in demands raised from outside the individual generally often as a result of parental conditioning of social mores.
What causes a problem to manifest is the point now at issue and is encompassed within the doctrine of the dynamics of personality and the notion that a problem is the result of conflict between the structured components of personality and external forces which demand a resolution for the person to function normally and behave in a manner acceptable to oneself in relationship with others. Such mental conflict produces anxiety within the psyche of wo/man and affects the component parts of the personality. Neurotic anxiety affects the id, moral anxiety acts on the super ego and objective anxiety upon the ego which attempts to resolve these conflicts through the co-ordination of internal and external forces.
ID demands – as in I want and has FORCE.
Ego observes reality with awareness and COMPROMISES.
Super Ego imposes parameters and LIMITS.
Failure to reach an acceptable balance between these forces and the aggregate personality experiences causes conflict which can manifest in mental disorder and physiological problems. The ego unable to resolve the conflict attempts to protect itself, usually by repressing the information at the root of the conflict. This information is shut out consciously or often unconsciously to provide some relief but this short term control of anxiety and conflict is not always a successful defence mechanism and eventually the psyche signals disorder in some manner. Some further aspect of this model which should be covered is; all activity, physical and particularly mental is the distribution of energy, in Freud’s terms Libido. This concept is difficult to accept as in Freud attaches Libido to everything and originates it in the id, with the task of distributing libido shared between the id, ego and super ego. If this is translated into energy or life force then it can be seen that when it is used economically in balance then it continues to function within a system harmoniously but too much demand in any one area will steer the system to breaking point.
Ego psychology as a major theme in psychodynamics stresses the importance of the foundation laid in the super ego around the age of five. This is depicted as a conflict in the phallic stage of development as a result of a son vying for the love of mother against father and daughter for father against mother known as the Oedipus – Electra complex.
Considering the background of Freud it can be understood why so much of his work developed to place great emphasis on sexual energy and expounded its complexity which may have been the cause of his loss in popularity with his place taken over by Jung developing his mind-man modal by introspection, subjective analysis. However Freud’s original work still forms the basis of psychodynamics, the main features being:-
I. Three structured components of psyche – ID, Ego, Super Ego.
II. Theory of instincts Life vs. Death
III. Course of psychosexual development - Stages of early infancy, oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital.
IV. Psychological quality of awareness –Topographical modal of unconscious, conscious, preconscious.
V. Dynamic of Personality – Conflict and defence mechanisms.
VI. The Economic energy view- Libido, cathexis, anti –cathexis.
The aim of Psychoanalytical therapy is to bring about fundamental changes in a personality, to be released from perhaps neurotic disorders caused by repression of distorting feelings and emotions which cause conflict and manifest disorders with various symptoms. Achieving this aim is undertaken by releasing the repression, allowing the conflict to enter into the conscious mind and assisting the (ego) conscious mind to gain control of the conflict by analysing the dynamics of the problem in such a way that harmony is restored and provides a new behaviour pattern which is acceptable.
Psychoanalytical therapy deals in what might be considered subjective matter, thing which do not of them selves have any material form but to the patient are very real. The analyst remains anonymous and ambiguous acting as a ‘sounding board’ and offering measured (possibly) interpretive comments when appropriate in order to guide towards awareness and understanding of the problem. This work can be done by using number of techniques all aimed at revealing the unconscious drives to the conscious mind in acceptable proportions until the whole is revealed.
One technique, Hypnosis, is a well established method which helps bypass some controlling forces of defence mechanisms or the critical faculty. This provides useful information to the analyst but the patient is often unaware of what is said and can be looked upon as being passive, dependant on a level of suggestibility for effectiveness and requiring prolonged treatment even with ego strengthening in order for a behaviour pattern to change. However inappropriate suggestibility to a hypnotised patient that does not address the underling driving cause of undesirable action may overlay the drive, not address it and result in an alterative outlet of unwanted behaviour. It is therefore imperative to address the unconscious mind for self healing and seek its own drive to rebalance the conscious manifest actions.
Other tools can be used to increase the effectiveness of treatment such as: - Free association where the patient says whatever comes to mind, word association which calls for a reaction to word stimulus again by saying what comes to mind, dreams can convey latent content of a problem in manageable conscious form and ‘Freudian’ slips can convey similar information through erroneous actions or speech and or clear physiological cues indicated by changes in pallor, voice and posture.
The analyst should note all details which are used to build up a profile of the patient which helps therapy progress to an acceptable outcome for the patient. Fundamentally, behavioural and physiological problems are not causes but symptoms of inappropriate balancing of conflict. The behaviour modal of psychodynamics holds that in understanding and modifying the psyche at deep level new behaviour patterns can emerge and psychological or psychosomatic problems will be alleviated. In essence wo/man is the sum of his experiences and thoughts. ‘As s/he thinks so s/he is’.
The Behaviour modal of psychotherapy holds that main subject matter of psychology is the behaviour of wo/man; that which can be observed as in what is said or done is important and is wholly objective not subjective or reliant on introspection. In relation to behaviour, it can be observed, measured, repeated and altered with given results. Behaviourism gained a degree of supremacy over psychodynamics because exponent could explain wo/man in terms of measurable material concepts at a time when psychoanalyst struggled with many introspective ideas and could not offer in the developing scientific age repeatable results. So wo/man is what s/he does or has done, not what s/he thinks.
Just as in psychodynamics there have developed different terms and tools to assist the behaviourist in modelling a therapy to alter behaviour patterns. However as shall be shown there is a fundamental gap in the behaviourist modal of wo/man which may negate the useful aspects and limit the continued understanding of wo/man by the behaviourist argument alone.
Behaviourists see events in terms of stimulus – response. Such events which can be observed and controlled are more important for predicting and changing behaviour and have been based on consistent relationships between environment conditions first understood from experiments based on animals, leading to the belief that human problems are as a result of inappropriate patterns of behaviour, learned or not.
Some of the terms used are useful to highlight the scientific approach adopted with this model of wo/man, for example:-
Organism: is any live subject i.e. animal – wo/man.
Stimulus: any event or situation which can be described objectively and incites the organism to respond in any way.
Response: any activity elicited from the organism by a stimulus whether muscular or glandular.
All behaviour is seen as an extension of the stimulus-response (SR) and further explained by extension with the argument that all action is a form of conditioning at some time, so:-
Reflex is an involuntary, unlearned, predictable response to stimulus.
Unconditioned Response: is an innate response to stimulus.
Unconditioned Stimulus: is an unlearned stimulus.
Neutral Stimulus: takes the place of a U/S, becoming:-
Conditioned Stimulus: Now a learned stimulus which elicits:-
Conditioned Response: a desired action.
Conditioning of behaviour occurs when stimulus has been applied often enough for a particular response to happen so that the required outcomes becomes automatic action or a behaviour and is refined further by the behaviour being conditional upon such notion as:-
Positive Reinforcement: reward for a particular piece of behaviour.
Terminal response: action which has a gaol objectives using natural behaviour to shape successive approximations to the goal outcome by rewarding and often linked with:-
Prime Re-enforcers: which satisfy basic needs for survival and:-
Secondary Re-enforcers: which please the organism, like food and money?
This concept of reinforcement also includes punishment / fear as a means of adapting and controlling behaviour as there is a general argument that an organism will prefer pleasure than pain. A behaviourist would argue that this is fundamentally the stimulus behind all behaviour.
So far much of the behaviourist philosophy owes its existence to the work undertaken by Pavlov on animals. This work was extended to include the study of man using his guidelines but the main tenets of behaviourism still remain SR situations by trial and error, leading to act in a particular way to achieve a given action leading to a result which would ensure that action was repeated.
It is apparent from the above that the behaviourist is not interested in the history of the organism but simply in the actions and finding a method of changing the behaviour and response by re-enforcers which act upon the observed inappropriate behaviour at a given time.
Thorndike, another exponent of behaviourism carried the SR idea further by stating that learning occurs only if the response has some effect on the organism leading onto a repetition of the action which will develop behaviour patterns.
Biological Factors in human leaning and behaviour assumes a general predisposition to undertake some task or learn as argued by Seligman and abnormal behaviour such as phobias could be a class of prepared behaviour stemming from evolutionary development or survival threats. Seemingly irrational fears usually develop towards specific animals e.g. snakes; insects etc or state such as darkness, heights. (Stimulus). Rarely are there fears attached to innate objects such as tress, rocks, clouds etc.
It is suggested that phobias or inappropriate behaviour are species specific, little more than a response to avoid punishment or gain reward and a natural reaction in accordance with the organism natural environment and instinctive behavioural pattern. This idea has been demonstrated by training animals to perform certain tasks and where the task is similar to natural behaviour the conditioned response suffers from instinctive drift and is eventually superseded by the instinctive behaviour. It might be argued that this idea is not applicable to humans as they have a greater potential for a cognitive process that can modify the instinctive drift.
The aim of the behaviour therapy is to bring about the elimination of undesirable behaviour by using classical conditioning to pair an aversive stimulus, usually drugs or shock, administered with the stimulus that elicits the undesirable behaviour. Behaviourists will regard their work as scientific and an established means of discovering basic laws that govern behaviour which can be generalised to human conditions.
More recent therapies have used imagined aversive events stimuli control which is the deliberate avoidance of stimuli which elicits inappropriate behaviour and setting up new patterns. Other interesting development of a similar vain are: Verbal self direction, self generated verbal commands which allow the subject to generate their own stimulus which is capable of directing actions for a new response. D’Lurilla & Soldfried 1971/73 stated an effective learning course of action to deal with a problem:-
a) recognise the problem
b) define it in concrete terms
c) generate a number of behaviour patterns which might be pursued
d) Decide on a course of action most likely to have a positive consequence.
Bio Feedback has also been used as a form of learning to control autonomic responses by the use of an external signal indicating an achieved response and by the subject analysing the thought of action which achieved the response, attempting to voluntarily repeat it.
A behaviourist dilemma shows the fundamental gap of behaviourist psychotherapy, on the one argued principle of stimulus – response together with conditioning, re enforcement, environment, species specific action and reward and pleasure vs. pain are all derived from Pavlov’s experiment on animals generalised as: - Man is an animal therefore consider only objective matters manifest in behaviour excluding any subjective experiences. Traditional behaviourist theory is based originally on such simple animal SR and is generalised too much to human behaviour. The internal process in humans have demonstrated more complex psychological factors at work behind behaviour, that the psychology of behaviour cannot be limited to SR alone without regard to complex subjective experiences.
Certain individuals of each generation in an attempt to understand what drives wo/man to effect them to produce behaviour activity that may be considered inappropriate to them selves or others, search for a constructed method upon which build a reconstruction programme for the suffering person or to create a new adaptation response to external events. Of late Neuro Linguistic Programming-NLP and Emotional Intelligence are two new models that have joined the pantheon of discourse that aims to offer cures for what ails wo/man and even these should be viewed “not for their truthfulness but their usefulness”.
Operant and classical conditioning have some value in understanding behaviour especially in early childhood where behaviour response is learned without conscious thought. However once overlaid by the subjective experiences of thought and emotion inappropriate behaviour cannot indicate what the driving force is without knowing what subjective values are at work and can no longer rely on its scientific judgement of behaviour objectively but it has to, as shown in therapeutic treatment, move closer to the psychodynamics approach previously scorned.
Contrast and comparison conclusions? It is now possible, although some point are self evident, in noting the main principles forming the context of psychodynamic and behaviour models.
Psychodynamics holds that man is composed of mind into two parts, conscious and unconscious each acting on the other. It is concerned with the outcome or results without to much regard for wo/mans animal evolution or instinctual drives. This contrasts with the behaviourist view that man is consciously orientated and driven by animal instincts and is only concerned with manifest action alone. Both observe behaviour that may be inappropriate but driven by completely different forces.
The development of the psychology of wo/man, the psyche and ego are all-important in psychodynamics and where conditioning (parental) is the only similarity to behaviourism. There is no psyche contained in the behaviourist view. All subjective factors are excluded as unscientific and are not measurable so should play no part in behaviour assessment. The reality that such factors as love, hate, jealousy, anger, greed etc do play a part is overlooked or translated into primary or secondary re enforced behaviour by the behaviourist.
Interestingly enough the outcome of both models has some similarity i.e. change in behaviour patterns but the course and methods of treatment vary considerably. Behaviourism looks at the inappropriate behaviour as a result of SR and seeks a change with new SR, so a cure is limited by what can be observed. The connection between minds a body is not important hence it is difficult for behaviourist to deal with psychosomatic problem of behaviour, nail biting, bed wetting, stammering etc. Traditional treatments by shock or drugs have limited effect and may compound the problem by other undesirable behaviour manifestation so the objectivity of cause and effect has given ground to more subjective treatments. An unusual development in the light of its origins.
In contrast psychodynamics is aimed at the introspection of subjective matters in order to go behind the manifest behaviour to seek a cure and can deal more effectively with psychosomatic disease acting on where the problem lies, not on what is seen. Arguably this is a more direct approach using non psychical intervention with hypnosis and psychoanalysis of the subject to achieve a lasting cure.
The pitfall into which the behaviourist has fallen by placing too much emphasis on objectivity, SR and observed manifest behaviour have in some measure been recovered by using certain broad techniques more in keeping with psychodynamics therapy than behaviourism and is, with subjective value clearly now similar in content and practice to both i.e. imagery, verbal self direction and bio feedback.
Metaphysical theory of philosophy related to existence, reality and knowledge is continuing to develop as wo/mans ability to express new concepts increases. The reason why wo/man behaves in certain ways, although complex and seemingly obstreperous, should not interfere with an attempt to view wo/man with a degree of wholeness. The nature of wo/man is not scientific or completely animal based and one should not wholly rely on developed modelled methods of dynamics least we become trapped within the tools of our own creation. For it may be truly argued that in psychodynamics and behaviourism, wo/man is more that the sum of all their parts and in whatever therapy used, it is a successful outcome which counts not the tools that are used. Psychodynamics has shown its ability to consider the whole person and may yet move onto theosophical interpretation something which behaviourism on its own will not and cannot do.
23/4/1987
© Renot 2008
A challenge to compare and contract the behaviourist model with the psychodynamic model of understanding beings.
Before attempting any comparative assessment of psychodynamics or behaviourism views, it will be necessary to outline the accepted evolved meanings that may be attached to both terms, assuming for the moment both are addressed to ultimately reaching a greater understanding and awareness of the fundamental nature of ‘wo/man’ using the devised methods of observing behaviour disorders to ‘measure’ the mind and body reaction within the confines of a individual reality and as required modify a perceived ‘problem’ to bring about what may be a changed behaviour patten that is more appropriate to events.
Both models, psychodynamics and behaviourism, have developed within the past hundred years and stem from philosophical schools of early times in an attempt to use reason and argument in search of truth and knowledge of reality, the nature of things and the principles governing existence, perception, human behaviour and the material universe. All of which was limited by a lack of paradigm knowledge and a comprehensive means of describing the often subtle and sublime intuitive inspiration which marks the beginning of greater understanding of why, where, when, and how?
Wo/Mans quest to find answers has led to the development of numerous material measurements to describe what is going on around and within both their self and external environs but there is a handicap contained within such questing which wo/man has always fallen upon. S/he is trapped within a material existence into describing their world in material terms and consequently becomes enmeshed in minutiae that develop into models of ‘reality’ and ‘isms’ which become the battle ground for conflict as different modelled realities struggle for supremacy at a cost of a possible truth contained within the whole. So erroneously, it is the language and tools used which become important not what they can achieve.
The Psychoanalyse model of therapy probably began in earnest with Freud’s attempt to provide a comprehensive theory of the mind and associated treatments for various disorders among the wealthy middle class Austrian ladies of the early 1900’s. This starting point had an influence on his interpretation of behaviour patterns upon which he based a future model and theory; leading to a broader and more diverse theorem of psychodynamics, concentrating on the personality made up of an individuals traits and characteristics in order to produce a ‘cure’ for manifested problems.
Some of the basic tenets of psychodynamics as instigated by Freud form the building blocks upon which the whole study of analysis is based and which is centred on the mind and observed manifested responses within an accepted appropriate reality.
The mind is generally assumed to be composed of two parts, conscious, dealing with the events in a wakeful state – sight, sound, smell, speech and feeling – all manifest in actions. And the ‘unconscious’ part dealing in the autonomic actions often associated with repetitive action like breathing, sleep and memory. This simplistic description of the mind may be considered as the structure of the personality that makes an individual ‘individual’. The following tenets are based on this simple mind model:-
A) Human behaviour is not accidental. It is a result of experience, feeling and memory developed by a continuous process into behavioural patterns often sharpened by painful experiences, the effects of which can be identified and analysed: - known as psychological determinism.
B) The unconscious mind is not a passive storehouse of ideas, experiences etc, It plays a dynamic part in manifested behaviour and uses mental energy to exercise control in achieving results, called the dynamic unconscious.
C) Goal directed dynamics holds that all behaviour is motivated to achieving a goal, often not conscious but instigated by the unconscious mind to bypass the conscious non acceptance. The existence of this has been proved in the treatment of patients with hysteria problems through the use of hypnosis to bypass the conscious minds objection or hindrance in achieving an acceptable state.
D) The foundation of adulthood are built on the experiences of childhood particularly potentially the first five years and hence subsequent behaviour is influenced by such experiences which at the time when there is little critical assessments ability, can cause inappropriate behaviour patterns that may compound each other into adult life. This is the development approach of the person by social and physical interaction and is not totally governed by instinctual needs.
The complexity of behaviour in the mind wo/man model is further explained by the addition of three other components which interact on behaviour, providing the dynamics of personality known as: -
ID, which demands – I WANT, survival.
Ego, which functions to maintain a balance by adjusting external reality within its own needs – TO BE.
Super Ego, brings in demands raised from outside the individual generally often as a result of parental conditioning of social mores.
What causes a problem to manifest is the point now at issue and is encompassed within the doctrine of the dynamics of personality and the notion that a problem is the result of conflict between the structured components of personality and external forces which demand a resolution for the person to function normally and behave in a manner acceptable to oneself in relationship with others. Such mental conflict produces anxiety within the psyche of wo/man and affects the component parts of the personality. Neurotic anxiety affects the id, moral anxiety acts on the super ego and objective anxiety upon the ego which attempts to resolve these conflicts through the co-ordination of internal and external forces.
ID demands – as in I want and has FORCE.
Ego observes reality with awareness and COMPROMISES.
Super Ego imposes parameters and LIMITS.
Failure to reach an acceptable balance between these forces and the aggregate personality experiences causes conflict which can manifest in mental disorder and physiological problems. The ego unable to resolve the conflict attempts to protect itself, usually by repressing the information at the root of the conflict. This information is shut out consciously or often unconsciously to provide some relief but this short term control of anxiety and conflict is not always a successful defence mechanism and eventually the psyche signals disorder in some manner. Some further aspect of this model which should be covered is; all activity, physical and particularly mental is the distribution of energy, in Freud’s terms Libido. This concept is difficult to accept as in Freud attaches Libido to everything and originates it in the id, with the task of distributing libido shared between the id, ego and super ego. If this is translated into energy or life force then it can be seen that when it is used economically in balance then it continues to function within a system harmoniously but too much demand in any one area will steer the system to breaking point.
Ego psychology as a major theme in psychodynamics stresses the importance of the foundation laid in the super ego around the age of five. This is depicted as a conflict in the phallic stage of development as a result of a son vying for the love of mother against father and daughter for father against mother known as the Oedipus – Electra complex.
Considering the background of Freud it can be understood why so much of his work developed to place great emphasis on sexual energy and expounded its complexity which may have been the cause of his loss in popularity with his place taken over by Jung developing his mind-man modal by introspection, subjective analysis. However Freud’s original work still forms the basis of psychodynamics, the main features being:-
I. Three structured components of psyche – ID, Ego, Super Ego.
II. Theory of instincts Life vs. Death
III. Course of psychosexual development - Stages of early infancy, oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital.
IV. Psychological quality of awareness –Topographical modal of unconscious, conscious, preconscious.
V. Dynamic of Personality – Conflict and defence mechanisms.
VI. The Economic energy view- Libido, cathexis, anti –cathexis.
The aim of Psychoanalytical therapy is to bring about fundamental changes in a personality, to be released from perhaps neurotic disorders caused by repression of distorting feelings and emotions which cause conflict and manifest disorders with various symptoms. Achieving this aim is undertaken by releasing the repression, allowing the conflict to enter into the conscious mind and assisting the (ego) conscious mind to gain control of the conflict by analysing the dynamics of the problem in such a way that harmony is restored and provides a new behaviour pattern which is acceptable.
Psychoanalytical therapy deals in what might be considered subjective matter, thing which do not of them selves have any material form but to the patient are very real. The analyst remains anonymous and ambiguous acting as a ‘sounding board’ and offering measured (possibly) interpretive comments when appropriate in order to guide towards awareness and understanding of the problem. This work can be done by using number of techniques all aimed at revealing the unconscious drives to the conscious mind in acceptable proportions until the whole is revealed.
One technique, Hypnosis, is a well established method which helps bypass some controlling forces of defence mechanisms or the critical faculty. This provides useful information to the analyst but the patient is often unaware of what is said and can be looked upon as being passive, dependant on a level of suggestibility for effectiveness and requiring prolonged treatment even with ego strengthening in order for a behaviour pattern to change. However inappropriate suggestibility to a hypnotised patient that does not address the underling driving cause of undesirable action may overlay the drive, not address it and result in an alterative outlet of unwanted behaviour. It is therefore imperative to address the unconscious mind for self healing and seek its own drive to rebalance the conscious manifest actions.
Other tools can be used to increase the effectiveness of treatment such as: - Free association where the patient says whatever comes to mind, word association which calls for a reaction to word stimulus again by saying what comes to mind, dreams can convey latent content of a problem in manageable conscious form and ‘Freudian’ slips can convey similar information through erroneous actions or speech and or clear physiological cues indicated by changes in pallor, voice and posture.
The analyst should note all details which are used to build up a profile of the patient which helps therapy progress to an acceptable outcome for the patient. Fundamentally, behavioural and physiological problems are not causes but symptoms of inappropriate balancing of conflict. The behaviour modal of psychodynamics holds that in understanding and modifying the psyche at deep level new behaviour patterns can emerge and psychological or psychosomatic problems will be alleviated. In essence wo/man is the sum of his experiences and thoughts. ‘As s/he thinks so s/he is’.
The Behaviour modal of psychotherapy holds that main subject matter of psychology is the behaviour of wo/man; that which can be observed as in what is said or done is important and is wholly objective not subjective or reliant on introspection. In relation to behaviour, it can be observed, measured, repeated and altered with given results. Behaviourism gained a degree of supremacy over psychodynamics because exponent could explain wo/man in terms of measurable material concepts at a time when psychoanalyst struggled with many introspective ideas and could not offer in the developing scientific age repeatable results. So wo/man is what s/he does or has done, not what s/he thinks.
Just as in psychodynamics there have developed different terms and tools to assist the behaviourist in modelling a therapy to alter behaviour patterns. However as shall be shown there is a fundamental gap in the behaviourist modal of wo/man which may negate the useful aspects and limit the continued understanding of wo/man by the behaviourist argument alone.
Behaviourists see events in terms of stimulus – response. Such events which can be observed and controlled are more important for predicting and changing behaviour and have been based on consistent relationships between environment conditions first understood from experiments based on animals, leading to the belief that human problems are as a result of inappropriate patterns of behaviour, learned or not.
Some of the terms used are useful to highlight the scientific approach adopted with this model of wo/man, for example:-
Organism: is any live subject i.e. animal – wo/man.
Stimulus: any event or situation which can be described objectively and incites the organism to respond in any way.
Response: any activity elicited from the organism by a stimulus whether muscular or glandular.
All behaviour is seen as an extension of the stimulus-response (SR) and further explained by extension with the argument that all action is a form of conditioning at some time, so:-
Reflex is an involuntary, unlearned, predictable response to stimulus.
Unconditioned Response: is an innate response to stimulus.
Unconditioned Stimulus: is an unlearned stimulus.
Neutral Stimulus: takes the place of a U/S, becoming:-
Conditioned Stimulus: Now a learned stimulus which elicits:-
Conditioned Response: a desired action.
Conditioning of behaviour occurs when stimulus has been applied often enough for a particular response to happen so that the required outcomes becomes automatic action or a behaviour and is refined further by the behaviour being conditional upon such notion as:-
Positive Reinforcement: reward for a particular piece of behaviour.
Terminal response: action which has a gaol objectives using natural behaviour to shape successive approximations to the goal outcome by rewarding and often linked with:-
Prime Re-enforcers: which satisfy basic needs for survival and:-
Secondary Re-enforcers: which please the organism, like food and money?
This concept of reinforcement also includes punishment / fear as a means of adapting and controlling behaviour as there is a general argument that an organism will prefer pleasure than pain. A behaviourist would argue that this is fundamentally the stimulus behind all behaviour.
So far much of the behaviourist philosophy owes its existence to the work undertaken by Pavlov on animals. This work was extended to include the study of man using his guidelines but the main tenets of behaviourism still remain SR situations by trial and error, leading to act in a particular way to achieve a given action leading to a result which would ensure that action was repeated.
It is apparent from the above that the behaviourist is not interested in the history of the organism but simply in the actions and finding a method of changing the behaviour and response by re-enforcers which act upon the observed inappropriate behaviour at a given time.
Thorndike, another exponent of behaviourism carried the SR idea further by stating that learning occurs only if the response has some effect on the organism leading onto a repetition of the action which will develop behaviour patterns.
Biological Factors in human leaning and behaviour assumes a general predisposition to undertake some task or learn as argued by Seligman and abnormal behaviour such as phobias could be a class of prepared behaviour stemming from evolutionary development or survival threats. Seemingly irrational fears usually develop towards specific animals e.g. snakes; insects etc or state such as darkness, heights. (Stimulus). Rarely are there fears attached to innate objects such as tress, rocks, clouds etc.
It is suggested that phobias or inappropriate behaviour are species specific, little more than a response to avoid punishment or gain reward and a natural reaction in accordance with the organism natural environment and instinctive behavioural pattern. This idea has been demonstrated by training animals to perform certain tasks and where the task is similar to natural behaviour the conditioned response suffers from instinctive drift and is eventually superseded by the instinctive behaviour. It might be argued that this idea is not applicable to humans as they have a greater potential for a cognitive process that can modify the instinctive drift.
The aim of the behaviour therapy is to bring about the elimination of undesirable behaviour by using classical conditioning to pair an aversive stimulus, usually drugs or shock, administered with the stimulus that elicits the undesirable behaviour. Behaviourists will regard their work as scientific and an established means of discovering basic laws that govern behaviour which can be generalised to human conditions.
More recent therapies have used imagined aversive events stimuli control which is the deliberate avoidance of stimuli which elicits inappropriate behaviour and setting up new patterns. Other interesting development of a similar vain are: Verbal self direction, self generated verbal commands which allow the subject to generate their own stimulus which is capable of directing actions for a new response. D’Lurilla & Soldfried 1971/73 stated an effective learning course of action to deal with a problem:-
a) recognise the problem
b) define it in concrete terms
c) generate a number of behaviour patterns which might be pursued
d) Decide on a course of action most likely to have a positive consequence.
Bio Feedback has also been used as a form of learning to control autonomic responses by the use of an external signal indicating an achieved response and by the subject analysing the thought of action which achieved the response, attempting to voluntarily repeat it.
A behaviourist dilemma shows the fundamental gap of behaviourist psychotherapy, on the one argued principle of stimulus – response together with conditioning, re enforcement, environment, species specific action and reward and pleasure vs. pain are all derived from Pavlov’s experiment on animals generalised as: - Man is an animal therefore consider only objective matters manifest in behaviour excluding any subjective experiences. Traditional behaviourist theory is based originally on such simple animal SR and is generalised too much to human behaviour. The internal process in humans have demonstrated more complex psychological factors at work behind behaviour, that the psychology of behaviour cannot be limited to SR alone without regard to complex subjective experiences.
Certain individuals of each generation in an attempt to understand what drives wo/man to effect them to produce behaviour activity that may be considered inappropriate to them selves or others, search for a constructed method upon which build a reconstruction programme for the suffering person or to create a new adaptation response to external events. Of late Neuro Linguistic Programming-NLP and Emotional Intelligence are two new models that have joined the pantheon of discourse that aims to offer cures for what ails wo/man and even these should be viewed “not for their truthfulness but their usefulness”.
Operant and classical conditioning have some value in understanding behaviour especially in early childhood where behaviour response is learned without conscious thought. However once overlaid by the subjective experiences of thought and emotion inappropriate behaviour cannot indicate what the driving force is without knowing what subjective values are at work and can no longer rely on its scientific judgement of behaviour objectively but it has to, as shown in therapeutic treatment, move closer to the psychodynamics approach previously scorned.
Contrast and comparison conclusions? It is now possible, although some point are self evident, in noting the main principles forming the context of psychodynamic and behaviour models.
Psychodynamics holds that man is composed of mind into two parts, conscious and unconscious each acting on the other. It is concerned with the outcome or results without to much regard for wo/mans animal evolution or instinctual drives. This contrasts with the behaviourist view that man is consciously orientated and driven by animal instincts and is only concerned with manifest action alone. Both observe behaviour that may be inappropriate but driven by completely different forces.
The development of the psychology of wo/man, the psyche and ego are all-important in psychodynamics and where conditioning (parental) is the only similarity to behaviourism. There is no psyche contained in the behaviourist view. All subjective factors are excluded as unscientific and are not measurable so should play no part in behaviour assessment. The reality that such factors as love, hate, jealousy, anger, greed etc do play a part is overlooked or translated into primary or secondary re enforced behaviour by the behaviourist.
Interestingly enough the outcome of both models has some similarity i.e. change in behaviour patterns but the course and methods of treatment vary considerably. Behaviourism looks at the inappropriate behaviour as a result of SR and seeks a change with new SR, so a cure is limited by what can be observed. The connection between minds a body is not important hence it is difficult for behaviourist to deal with psychosomatic problem of behaviour, nail biting, bed wetting, stammering etc. Traditional treatments by shock or drugs have limited effect and may compound the problem by other undesirable behaviour manifestation so the objectivity of cause and effect has given ground to more subjective treatments. An unusual development in the light of its origins.
In contrast psychodynamics is aimed at the introspection of subjective matters in order to go behind the manifest behaviour to seek a cure and can deal more effectively with psychosomatic disease acting on where the problem lies, not on what is seen. Arguably this is a more direct approach using non psychical intervention with hypnosis and psychoanalysis of the subject to achieve a lasting cure.
The pitfall into which the behaviourist has fallen by placing too much emphasis on objectivity, SR and observed manifest behaviour have in some measure been recovered by using certain broad techniques more in keeping with psychodynamics therapy than behaviourism and is, with subjective value clearly now similar in content and practice to both i.e. imagery, verbal self direction and bio feedback.
Metaphysical theory of philosophy related to existence, reality and knowledge is continuing to develop as wo/mans ability to express new concepts increases. The reason why wo/man behaves in certain ways, although complex and seemingly obstreperous, should not interfere with an attempt to view wo/man with a degree of wholeness. The nature of wo/man is not scientific or completely animal based and one should not wholly rely on developed modelled methods of dynamics least we become trapped within the tools of our own creation. For it may be truly argued that in psychodynamics and behaviourism, wo/man is more that the sum of all their parts and in whatever therapy used, it is a successful outcome which counts not the tools that are used. Psychodynamics has shown its ability to consider the whole person and may yet move onto theosophical interpretation something which behaviourism on its own will not and cannot do.
23/4/1987
© Renot 2008
posted by Renot at 5:47 am
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