Citat

Psychodynamic Positive Psychotherapy Emphasizes the Impact of Culture in the Time of Globalization

Christian HENRICHS
Private Psychotherapeutic Practice and International Lecturing, Cologne, Germany

Abstract
The emphasis of Positive Psychotherapy on culture is a specific contribution to psychodynamic psychotherapy and to contemporary psychological reasoning and in tervention in general. In this article, it is argued that a consistent psycho-cultural perspective as introduced by the founder of Positive Psychotherapy, the Persian-German psychiatrist and psychotherapist Nossrat Peseschkian (1933-2010), is beneficial for humanity’s psychological needs in the time of globalization. Also elementary concepts and the style of intervention in Positive Psychotherapy are described.

Keywords
Positive Psychotherapy; Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy; Psychodynamic Psychotherapy; Humanistic Psychotherapy; Short-Term Therapy; Globalization

Citat

Psychosomatic “Arc” in the Psycho Therapeutic Practice

Ivanka BONCHEVA
Department Psychiatry and Medical Psychology,
Medical University – Varna, Bulgaria

Abstract
The psychoneuroimmunology, the new brain science and the endocrinology today show a lot of results, with which symptoms are better to understand. The psychotherapeutic practice shows the ways to influence them by encoding the levels of bounding between the physical symptom and the psychological condition. The aim of the study was to show the encoding of the psychosomatic arc within a real psychotherapeutic contact. 59 psychotherapeutic cases are followed. 33 of them were with somatoform disorders and 26 with chronic psychosomatic diseases. Every patient has minimum 12 psychotherapeutic sessions. The treatment is provided on the base of the 5 levels model of the positive psychotherapy.

We ascertain the following:

  1. The most significant moment in the arise of such symptomatic is the gained past experience – “vital concepts”; “coping strategies”;
  2. Unlocking moment for the arise of the affection is the fixed emotion – fear, aggression or depression, specific for the particular morbid pictures;
  3. Showing the connection between symptom and fixed emotion by the technique “positive interpretation”, which unlocks the process of changing

This shows that the psychotherapeutic help is possible only if the patient rethink the psychosomatic arc. Showing the connections between the content of the unconscious, the fixed emotion in behavioral models and the symptom gives the impetus to change.

Keywords:
Psychosomatic arc; connection between unconscious – fixed emotion – symptoms; positive psychotherapy

Citat

Operationalisation of Countertransference in Positive Psychotherapy

Dr. Maksim GONCHAROV, MD, PhD, psychiatrist, psychotherapist
Board member of the World Association of Positive Psychotherapy (WAPP)

Abstract
Most examples of countertransference found in literature, refer to the perceived emotional reactions of the therapist, and unconscious components are considered in terms of transitory „blind spots”, which may be worked through by gaining awareness of the emotional reactions. Previously, the term „countertransference”, as psychoanalytic in origin, used primarily by psychoanalysts. However, now it is recognized by many schools of psychotherapy and applied much more widely. Today there are two opposite approaches to the concept of countertransference. The first approach can be called „classical.” It is characterized by the concept of countertransference, regarded as an unconscious reaction of the psychoanalyst to the transference of the patient. The second approach is called „holistic». In it’s light the countertransference is a common emotional reactions of the therapist to the patient in the treatment situation. Despite the fact that the concept of transference and countertransference is about 100 years, the operationalization of these phenomena remains largely insufficient. In our work of the analysis of countertransference, we rely on the theoretical concepts borrowed from Positive Psychotherapy after Nossrat Peseschkian (1968). According to his concepts, there are four channels to investigate the reality:

  1. By means of feelings (emotions, feelings);
  2. By means of reason (thoughts, impulses);
  3. By means of tradition (associations, memories);
  4. By means of intuition (imagination, fears, expectations).

Keywords:
countertransference, operationalization, positive psychotherapy, balance model.