PST406 Overview of different methods of psychotherapy and personal change

Faculty of Social Studies
Autumn 2008
Extent and Intensity
0/0. 8 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
PhDr. Roman Hytych, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. MUDr. Jan Roubal, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. MUDr. Jan Roubal, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology – Faculty of Social Studies
Timetable of Seminar Groups
PST406/01: No timetable has been entered into IS. J. Roubal
PST406/02: No timetable has been entered into IS. R. Hytych
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course is partly in English and in the form of e-learning. It is prepared for the students of psychotherapeutical studies. The course consists of e-learning, on-line seminar, discussion forum and study of internet literar resorces (in English)
At the end of this unit students should have an understanding of how concerns, values, emotional flavours, and narrative can be used to compare different practices of psychotherapy; Students should know what the aims and focus of symptomatic, short-term, motivational, and longer-term psychotherapies are and which psychotherapy traditions have made a contribution to them; Students should be able to define personality, to consider the benefits and shortcomings of using this term, and how it is figured in many of the great traditions of psychotherapy; Students should be familiar with the key theoretical concepts and practical techniques of these great traditions; Finally, students should have developed a working model in which they can fit their own beliefs and practice, and understand what concerns it particularly addresses, what values are central to it, what its likely emotional flavour is to their clients, and how their story of it fits into the larger story of psychotherapy;
Syllabus
  • Curriculum:
  • 1. Introduction
  • a. What is psychotherapy? The relation of psychotherapy
  • i. to the emotions
  • ii. to personality (what is personality?)
  • iii. to personal change (what is personal change)
  • iv. to relationships
  • b. Identifying personal concerns
  • i. What are concerns?
  • ii. Values
  • iii. Focus of intervention
  • iv. Flavour of intervention
  • c. Categorization of psychotherapy by outcome
  • i. Symptomatic therapies
  • ii. Short-term therapies
  • iii. Motivational therapies
  • iv. Long-term therapies
  • 2. Symptomatic treatments
  • a. Anxiety
  • b. Depression
  • c. Anger
  • d. Social skills/ self-awareness
  • 3. Predicaments: short-term problem solving
  • a. Feeling stuck
  • b. Hopelessness or helplessness
  • c. Individual
  • d. Systems
  • e. Marital and relationship therapy
  • 4. Treating addictions and perversions
  • a. Longing and yearning
  • b. Craving
  • c. Mourning
  • d. Nostalgia
  • e. Rumination and revenge
  • f. Is there an addictive personality?
  • g. How does having an addiction change a person?
  • h. Motivational interviewing
  • i. Psychotherapy and medication
  • j. Remoralization: the role of religion and society
  • 5. Changing the personality
  • a. What is personality, if anything?
  • i. Situational theories
  • ii. Life experience theories
  • iii. Biological, trait theories. The Big 5
  • 1. Temperament
  • 2. Body types: evdience for and against
  • a. Schilder, Character and Korperbau
  • b. Character analysis: Reich, Lowen
  • iv. Emotional disposition and personality
  • v. Personal narrative and personality
  • vi. Life-situation, the human condition, and personality
  • vii. Agency and personality: the self
  • viii. Social identity and personality
  • 1. the ego
  • 2. social attribution theory
  • 3. the pygmalion effect
  • b. have we one or more personalities?
  • i. implicat and explicit personality
  • ii. modes of signification (indexical, iconic, symbolic) and the division between ‘emotional and implicit’ and ‘cognitive/ ideational and explicit’
  • iii. the relationships between conscious and unconscious emotions, and unconscious and conscious cogntiions
  • iv. multiple personality
  • 6. Everyday approaches to changing personality: evidence from literature, biography, and personal experience
  • a. Core values
  • b. Emotions that are particularly important
  • c. Personality theory espoused
  • d. Method of change
  • e. Outocmes expected
  • 7. Existential approaches to changing personality
  • a. Core values
  • b. Emotions that are particular important
  • c. Personality theory espoused
  • d. Method of change
  • e. Outocmes expected
  • 8. Psychodynamic approaches to changing personality
  • a. Core values
  • b. Emotions that are particular important
  • c. Personality theory espoused
  • d. Method of change
  • e. Outcomes expected
  • 9. Systems and group approaches to changing personality
  • a. Core values
  • b. Emotions that are particular important
  • c. Personality theory espoused
  • d. Method of change
  • e. Outocmes expected
  • 10. Is there a general theory of personal change that applies to psychotherapy?
  • a. Emotion management:control, inhibition, disinhibition
  • i. Capacity to experience a full range of emotions
  • ii. Capacity to experience but not be overwhelmed by emotions
  • iii. Expressing emotion: when it does and doesn’t help; emotional intelligence; the myth of catharsis
  • iv. Facing up to one’s own emotions
  • v. Learning about one’s own emotions: alexithymia, learning through introspection and learning through observing the impact on others (the looking glass self)The thinking about emotions myth
  • b. Conflict reduction: reducing negative emotion
  • i. Warded off emotions and ideas
  • ii. The divisive effects of narrative incoherence
  • iii. Here-and-now and there-and-then conflicts
  • c. Wellbeing enhancement: increasing positive emotion
  • d. Being real: Living for the self and not for the other
  • e. Being at one with the world: Living for the other and not for the self
Literature
  • SEPTIMUS virtual learning environment
  • KRATOCHVÍL, Stanislav. Základy psychoterapie. 5. přeprac. vyd. Praha: Portál, 2006, 383 s. ISBN 8073671220. info
  • PROCHASKA, James O. and John C. NORCROSS. Psychoterapeutické systémy : průřez teoriemi. Praha: Grada, 1999, 479 s. ISBN 8071697664. info
Assessment methods
Requirements for completing the course:
Presence at the seminars
Active participation in the discussion forum
Corect answers in the multiple choices at the end of each week lessons
Written final seminar paper.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
Teacher's information
http://www.septimus.info/
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2009.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2008, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/autumn2008/PST406