The treatment of bulimia with psychoanalysis Research Paper

The treatment of bulimia with psychoanalysis - Research Paper Example...17 4.1 Recommendations....17 References ABSTRACT This paper was based on literature review and it explored many available research papers evaluating the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy for the treatment of the eating disorder, bulimia. It was found as a result of a thorough review of available relevant material in different authentic research journals, that psychodynamic therapy is quite effective in treating bulimic patients, psychodynamic therapy is not an belatedly form of therapy and the psychologist attempting psychoanalysis of a bulimic must be well equipped to handle the transference phase effectively. Finally, CBT is a quicker option in treating bulimic adults, but the results of CBT are not temporally stable as compared to those of psychodynamic therapy. thither is need of more research to test and compare the effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy when merged with CBT for treatment of bul imia. INTRODUCTION This paper attempts to review the effectiveness of psychoanalytic techniques used for successful treatment of the eating disorder, bulimia. Psychoanalysis involves various treatment methods that underside be used for treating bulimia. This paper will explore and evaluate different psychoanalytical techniques available for treating bulimia with regard to effectiveness. Relevant literature will be soundly searched for any evidence of comparative effectiveness of two or more psychoanalytical treatment methods with patients of bulimia. The literature search will be followed by a discussion and the paper will conclude with a summary of the findings. 1.1 The Psychodynamic Approach to Psychology The first proper theory of human psychology surfaced in the 1800s. Sigmund Freud is the neurologist and proponent of this theory and school of thought namely the psychodynamic approach. The founder of this school of thought divides human mind into three components the consciou s, unconscious and pre-conscious (Burger, 2008). The conscious consists of the awareness zona and contains thoughts of which one is aware. The thoughts in the pre conscious mind are not readily available, but can be retrieved easily. The last part, namely the unconscious makes up the major part of human mind and is of great interest to psychoanalysts. According to Freud, thoughts in the unconscious are the key to understanding ones personality and these can only be brought to the conscious mind in certain extreme situations (Burger, 2008). According to the structural model of personality, psychoanalytical school of thought believes in cosmea of id, ego and super ego. The id is the psychic representative of drives ego is the component which deals with the relation functions of humans and their environment while the super ego consists of the moral precepts. Other primary(prenominal) concepts of the psychoanalytical school of thought include defense mechanisms that humans use to dea l with conflict (Brenner, 1973). Sigmund Freud was the founder of this school of thought but it hasnt died with his death. There have been many changes and advancements in the theory and therapy of psychodynamics and it is accepted