Behavioral Therapy vs. Psychoanalysis

Paper Summary:

This paper claims that, in comparison to psychoanalysis, behavior therapy focuses more on specific problems, such as anxiety symptoms, so treatment is often more compressed. The paper examines the goal of behavior therapy, to eliminate bad behaviors, or to develop adaptive coping behaviors. The paper explains that unlike psychoanalysis, behavior therapy has little regard for the unconscious processes underlying personality disorders. The paper describes the techniques used in behavior therapy, such as aversive conditioning, in which negative habits are paired with unpleasant stimuli and systematic desensitization, where a stimulus that causes anxiety and negative feelings is paired with a pleasant one.

Outline
Introduction
The Two Types of Therapy
Freud
Skinner
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Amazing advances have been made in the treatment of mental illness throughout the years (Merck, 2004). An understanding of what causes some mental health disorders has resulted in a greater sophistication in customizing treatment to the underlying basis of specific disorders. Thus, many mental health disorders can now be treated almost as successfully as physical disorders. Most treatment methods for mental health disorders are either categorized as somatic or psychotherapeutic (Merck, 2004). Somatic treatments include drug therapy and electroconvulsive therapy. Psychotherapeutic treatments include individual, group, or family and marital psychotherapy; behavior therapy techniques; and hypnotherapy. There are many others, as well."

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