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Foundations of Psychodynamic Therapy: Implicit Emotional Learning

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Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Research

Part of the book series: Current Clinical Psychiatry ((CCPSY))

Abstract

At its core, psychotherapy is about helping a person to make meaningful, enduring changes. Although change can come about in many ways and for many reasons, enduring change depends on learning. How does a psychotherapist facilitate learning so that there is enduring change in a patient’s experience and/or behavior? Though therapists are concerned to varying degrees with multiple aspects of a patient’s cognition, motivation, and emotional experience, change ultimately depends on learning – the acquisition of new knowledge that alters existing representations and expectations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Other theories of psychopathology, of course, attempt to explain irrationality without referring to awareness and unawareness.

  2. 2.

    We use implicit and explicit here in a descriptive sense; further explication of these terms, as well as identifying levels and kinds of awareness, will take place more fully later in the chapter in the context of specific studies.

  3. 3.

    Brakel [22], for example, sets forth a model of mind in which primary process (often associated with activity outside awareness) is propositional.

  4. 4.

    Space limitations preclude more detailed discussion of this issue.

  5. 5.

    We also reported findings from measuring facial EMG; Bunce, Bernat, Wong, Shevrin [33].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PhD Program in Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York, USA

    Philip S. Wong Ph.D. & Dana M. Haywood M.A. (Doctoral Candidate of Clinical Psychology)

Authors
  1. Philip S. Wong Ph.D.
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  2. Dana M. Haywood M.A.
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Correspondence to Philip S. Wong Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Parkman St., Boston, 02114, Massachusetts, USA

    Raymond A. Levy

  2. Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Morrimac Street 101, Boston, 02114, Massachusetts, USA

    J. Stuart Ablon

  3. and Psychoanalysis, International Psychoanalytic University, Department of Clinical Psychology, Stromstr. 3, Berlin, 10555, Germany

    Horst Kächele

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Wong, P.S., Haywood, D.M. (2012). Foundations of Psychodynamic Therapy: Implicit Emotional Learning. In: Levy, R., Ablon, J., Kächele, H. (eds) Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Research. Current Clinical Psychiatry. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-792-1_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-792-1_16

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