Typical Expectations Of Psychotherapy

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Before a person came to an appointment with a psychologist, he already had a certain expectation of what might happen during this meeting. To some extent, the presented set of expectations from psychology and psychotherapy can be viewed as a special psychological test: tell me what you expect from this meeting - and I will tell you who you are. You can draw up a kind of classification or highlight typologies of people who are prone to certain expectations from a meeting with a psychologist and, accordingly, have some definite ideas about the psyche.

Let's try to highlight a few of the most common types.

"Impassive riders"

People belonging to this psychotype relate to the psyche, like the driver of a modern car to his car. If the engine is working normally and does not interfere with the driving style that is familiar and comfortable for a given person, then he simply does not look under the hood. Why unnecessary worries and worries: you need to properly take care of your psyche, fill it with the right amount of positive emotions, keep it in good shape, provide the necessary relaxation and avoid nervous overstrain.

People of this type begin to think about their soul and inner world only when the psyche begins to malfunction or when they begin to lose the ability to effectively manage it. In this case, they have to "get under the hood". They are trying to figure out how everything works there. But since earlier psychology and psychologists were treated with some disdain, it is difficult for them to understand anything in themselves.

Further, the search for the "necessary mechanic" begins, irritation over the fact that there are no qualified specialists in this country and everyone has to do it himself. Having studied this new market for himself, a person makes a choice, and we see him at our reception.

Eternal Divers

This type of people is in many ways the opposite of the one just described. These people once plunged into their psyche and very rarely emerge from it. They are well versed in all their troubles and problems, they have developed a very differentiated set of terms and concepts to describe the various currents and fluctuations observed in their mental element. They perceive the entire surrounding world as if from the depths of their psyche.

Naturally, they perceive everything that happens around them and even relationships with loved ones through the waters of their feelings and emotions. If these feelings are pure and transparent, then the visibility remains quite acceptable and they perceive the world around them relatively adequately. But if they are captured by some murky emotions or violent passions raise from the depths of their psyche a residue of past sorrows and sufferings, then the perception of what is happening and those around them becomes very difficult.

Most often, such people come to psychologists with a pretty agitated psyche. The most unexpected ideas about what the psyche is and what is happening in it can float in it. They convulsively grab onto various psychological terms, trying to stay on them as on a lifeline.

The first thing a psychologist has to do is to pull a person out of his psyche and help him look around in the world around him.

"Always dissatisfied"

There is a large group of people who are somewhat similar to "impassive riders", but only not very happy with what they got.

They look with envy at those who dashingly overtake them in their powerful and balanced psyche. They constantly compare their intellectual, communication and mental abilities with the skills of those with whom fate and nature have treated more generously.

Very often people belonging to this psychotype begin to look for reasons why their psyche is not so perfect. Most often, the reasons are found in childhood. Their family and parents are to blame for everything. They were once disliked, they were not given something, they were bullied and oppressed, their whole soul is covered with abrasions and injuries.

Ideas about psychoanalysis are widespread today among the masses, so everyone knows about mental tyrants, complexes, childhood grievances and parental curses. Less commonly, people know something about suppressed aggression and evil thoughts, and even less often they expect to find them in their souls.

Depending on the level of education and erudition, people of this type come to a psychologist, already having in their head this or that concept of the psyche, most often picked up from some novels, films or popular literature.

"Gambling riders"

These are people who are very keen on their emotions and passions. Depending on the level of education and aesthetic development, they can choose a variety of emotions and feelings for trips and races. There are girls who "love to fall in love very much" and constantly fall in love with those who are able to provide them with stormy jumps. There are many who love to suffer and accordingly find suitable partners for themselves.

There are a lot of people feasting on scandals and conflicts. The fact is that a scandal is a very strong psychedelic drug, and people can easily become addicted to them.

Violent emotions and feelings give our life a genuine or illusory sense of saturation. They fill the existential and semantic void, give us the feeling that we live and exist.

People of this type come to psychologists in situations when their "favorite horse" knocks them out of the saddle, when for some reason they cannot cope with their feelings and from riders turn into a victim of a raging psychic element. In some cases, the object of love or the source of suffering disappears. Or a sparring partner in scandals gets tired of such a life and quietly runs away.

In some cases, people turn on reflection and they themselves understand that they have become "addicted" to their psychological games.

"Victims of collision with the Other"

Very often, the realization that a person lacks understanding of other people and knowledge from psychology comes to him in a situation when he collides with something else: with another person, a different way of life, with a different social environment.

Usually these are fairly honest people with themselves, and, in addition, they are able to notice and understand that the other person has different forms of self-organization, values, that he is simply arranged differently. The same happens when people find themselves in a social environment unfamiliar to them or find themselves in an unfamiliar social circle.

This is a very convenient and grateful type of clients for psychologists, since they are focused on understanding themselves, and on learning to understand other people, and on mastering new forms of communication and communication with people.

Physicians of the Other

Representatives of this type differ from the one just described in that they consider themselves to be absolutely adequate and normal, but their partner, their child, boss, friend, colleague - in general, someone else who is very important for them for various reasons, is not a very normal person.

Most often, people turn to psychologists so that he does something with their child. The child misbehaves, he gets out of control, he has problems in kindergarten, at school, He is aggressive, fearful, shy, hyperactive, Such people have to explain that the state of the child is very dependent on relationships and the atmosphere that has developed in the family …

The same thing happens with husbands, wives, loved ones, parents. But in this case, criticality towards oneself is still higher than in the case of children. However, it is a great revelation for people that the "manipulators", "narcissists", "psychological vampires" around them, as well as witches, bitches and other individuals sometimes simply reciprocate. And very often they themselves provoke them to take these unpleasant roles.

This typology can be developed further, but within the framework of this article it is possible to dwell on the selected types. The important thing is that psychologists have to be willing to work with people who have different expectations from psychotherapy.

In many ways, we ourselves form precisely such expectations from our activities, since specialists have to, as they say, “follow the market”.

It is worth noting that there are people who have real mental or even psychiatric problems, people who have experienced some kind of psychological stress turn to psychologists. It makes sense to consider all these cases separately.