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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper is a review of the book "Learning from our Mistakes" by psychotherapist Patrick Casement. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
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4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVCasemt.rtf
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discusses Patrick Casements book Learning from our mistakes, which discusses the problematic nature of psychotherapy. Discussion Casement says quite clearly that his thesis is "the potential of psychoanalysis is paradoxical.
It can either free the mind or bind it. It can liberate creativity and spontaneity, but it can also foster compliance (particularly within a psychoanalytic training)" (Casement, 2002, p. 1).
Casement continues by saying that he believes analysts have to be mindful of the way in which "current analytic practice can develop into a false extension of psychoanalysis" (Casement, 2002,
p. 1). He argues that this "false extension" might seem to a therapist to be a "true and therapeutic development," but it can just as easily be something that the
therapist has imposed on the patient; that is the danger. Psychotherapy is supposed to free the mind and allow for the fullest growth of human potential possible, but Casement suggests
this doesnt always happen, particularly for therapists in training (Casement, 2002). There, he says, rather than being free, there is pressure on the newly-trained therapist to conform, "... in order
to preserve the purity of the psychoanalytic discipline and tradition, or to adhere to the norms of some revisionist group of psychoanalysts or psychotherapists" (Casement, 2002, p. 2). When a
therapist becomes more concerned with conducting the therapy in an "approved" manner or following a particular school of thought, it becomes likely that he will not be doing whats best
for the patient. Casement discusses Freud-how can he avoid it?-and points out that in the earliest years of his work, Freud literally put pressure on his patients: he would
put his hand on their forehead and then release it, suggesting by the action that he was releasing their inhibitions and allow them to speak freely about their problems (Casement,
...