The Humanistic Approach To Treatment of Mental Disorders

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The Humanistic Approach To Treatment of Mental
Disorders
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• Focus on personal growth and not so much on
  mental disorder
• Focus on the individual, and their view on the
  world.
• Emphasise free will
• See the most important part of someone's world as
  being their own view of it.
• Focus on an individuals strengths, and not their
  weaknesses.
• Encourage personal growth rather than relieving
  distress.
• Important names are Carl Rogers, Dr. Simon Young
  and Abraham Maslow.
• Humanistic therapies have generally been regarded
  as more appropriate for people with neurotic or
  anxiety disorders than for those with psychotic
  problems such as schizophrenia.

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• Existential Therapy
• logo therapy for those with anxiety disorders
  and phobias
• Existential psychotherapy is a powerful approach
  to therapy which takes seriously the human
  condition. It is an optimistic approach in that
  it embraces human potential, while remaining a
  realistic approach through its recognition of
  human limitation. Falling in the tradition of the
  depth psychotherapies, existential therapy has
  much in common with psychodynamic, humanistic,
  experiential, and relational approaches to
  psychotherapy.
• If you can wish the worst case of your fear upon
  yourself, then you cannot over-anticipate the
  problem.

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• Client-centred therapy
• Healthy people are aware of behaviour, and are
  good and centre effective.
• Therapist will give the opportunity for these
  things to happen
• It relies on the assumption that people are
  easily good.
• Client centred therapy can certainly make people
  feel better by meeting their need for attention
  from a well-meaning outsider. However there has
  never been any evidence that client centred
  approaches are effective.
• Depressed people for example need to learn skills
  and approaches to life and there is a high
  percentage of client dissatisfaction and
  frustration with the therapists' passive stance
  and refusal to give opinions or make
  suggestions.

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• Proposed by Rogers
• As a humanist, Rogers assumed that healthy people
  are innately good and effective and can be aware
  of their behaviour as goal directed and self
  directive.
• Therefore he argued that therapists should create
  a situation where the individual can become
  healthy.
• However the person has to do this for themselves,
  and it is the job of the therapist to create the
  situation in which this becomes possible.

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• The therapist must have 3 core qualities
• Genuineness-must act normally and honestly
• Unconditional positive regard-no conditions
  attached by the therapist to the client, the
  client should be liked anyway, regardless of what
  they actually do or say.
• Accurate empathic understanding-having the
  ability to see through the eyes of the client and
  to share in their feelings.

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Evaluation

• One issue is that it could be someone paying
  attention to the individual rather than the
  therapy itself is what helps.