Basic Concepts of Using Psychoanalytic Approach
People will never know about their personal problems since people’s mind tend to repress their most distressing experiences. However, all human being has
psychological problems caused by some harmful emotional experiences they experience while growing up. Family as the most important source of people’s
early emotional experiences plays a crucial roles in shaping their repressed minds, despite how perfect the families are. The sign of emotional problem that occurs as
the result of a repressed experience is the repetition of self-destructive behaviour.
b. The repressed feelings are “buried in our unconscious through the use of
defences” Bressler, 1999:86. There are some common defences that come up from the repressed
experiences: i.
Denial Denial is when people deny by believing that an emotionally painful
situation does not exist or never occurred. ii.
Avoidance Avoidance is when people stay away from anything that could lead
them to the painful memory.
c. Core issue that comes up from the powerful buried experiences.
If the experience buried in the unconscious is powerful enough, it becomes a core issue core issu
e is a fundamental part of people’s personalities that determines many of their feelings and a good deal of behaviour. Bressler also
mentions that there are four core issues that generally occur in human’s life: PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
i. Low self-esteem the unwarranted belief that we are less worthy than
other human beings and, therefore, do not deserve attention, love, or any other form of life’s rewards.
ii. Insecurity unable to sustain a feeling of personal identity.
iii. Fear of abandonment the unwarranted nagging belief that our friends
and loved ones are going to desert us physical abandonment or do not really care about us emotional abandonment.
iv. Fear of intimacy unwarranted but unshakeable and overpowering
feeling that emotional closeness will seriously damage or destroy us and that we must, therefore, protect ourselves by remaining at an
emotional distance from others.
d. Core issues will result on certain “self-destructive behaviours and may show
up in the recurrence of disturbing dreams” Bressler, 1999:86 The manifestation of core issue is a certain destructive behaviour such as
“choosing unhealthy friends or romantic partners, displaying inappropriate social behaviour for example, habitually dominating
conversations or throwing temper tantrums in response to disagreements, engaging in unwarranted violent behaviour, engaging in substance abuse,
and the like. The recurrence of a disturbing dream might also be a clue to the existence of an unconscious problem, as might a tendency to behave in
defensive manner w
hen certain topics come up in a conversation” Bressler, 1999:83.