Chapter 15: Therapy

Testing your knowledge of idioms and other vocabulary

How familiar are you with American idioms? Match each item in column A with the appropriate meaning given in column B. If you are unsure, look at the sentence context given below Answers are given on the last page of this document.

COLUMN A / COLUMN B
a. to read someone's mind / 1. to know what someone is thinking
b. to come to mind / 2. to imagine oneself in another person's situation
c. black-or-white / 3. spoken recommendations
d. to put oneself in other people's shoes / 4. simple and direct, no middle ground
e. to be on the same wavelength / 5. to agree; to think similarly about a thing
f. to have "been there" / 6. to have experienced a similar situation
g. word of mouth / 7. to examine various possibilities before deciding
h. to shop around / 8. to be remembered

Sentence context

a.  Good therapists often seem to have an uncanny ability to understand how their clients are feeling and to know when someone is trying to avoid certain topics. This is not due to any special mind-reading ability. (p. 532)

b. Seeing things in black-or-white categories - everything is either totally good or

bad, right or wrong, a success or a failure. (p. 538)

d. Empathy is a sensitive understanding and sharing of another person's inner

experience. When we put ourselves in other people's shoes, we enter their inner world. (p. 540)

e. To clarify is to check that both the speaker and the listener are on the same

wavelength. (p. 540)

f.  Therapists often refer their patients to self-help groups to supplement individual therapy. Someone who has a problem with alcohol, for example, can find comfort and help with others who have "been there." (p. 542)

g.  In Western cultures, word-of-mouth testimonials and status symbols (such as diplomas on the wall) establish the therapist's credibility. (p. 558)

h.  If you have time (and the money) to explore options, it is important to “shop around” for a therapist best suited to your specific goals. (p. 556)

Reviewing your knowledge of English grammar

Emotive adjectives, or those used to express emotions, are common in descriptive clauses; however, they can be very challenging for students to master. This category of adjectives includes: amused/amusing, bored/boring, confused/confusing, frightened/frightening, interested/interesting, pleased/pleasing, shocked/shocking, surprised/surprising, etc. As you no doubt have learned, the -ed and the -ing forms of the adjectives have a slightly different meaning and use. When the -ed form is used, the focus is on the one who is experiencing the emotion: Sam was amused by the book. Here, the focus is on Sam, and his feeling of amusement upon reading the book. However, when the -ing form is used, the focus is on the person or thing causing the emotion: The book was amusing Sam In this second sentence, our attention is drawn to the book. Compare the sentences below, paying close attention to the -ed and -ing forms of each emotive adjective.

Focus on one experiencing emotion / Focus on cause of emotion
Frances Farmer was often annoyed by the directors of the movies she starred in. / The annoying directors often stopped MsFarmer from performing as she liked.
Many people are frustrated by my lack of emotion. / My lack of emotion is frustrating for many people.
Psychoanalysts are rarely embarrassed by the dreams their patients tell them about. / The embarrassing dreams patients tell rarely embarrass psychoanalysts.

Read over the paragraph below. Fill in the blanks with an appropriate emotive adjective from the list below, paying close attention to the ending used. When you are finished, compare your answers to the answer key.

interesting/interested
boring/bored / embarrassing/embarrassed
surprising/surprised
frightening/frightened / bewildering/bewildered

Psychoanalysts are ______in the thoughts and feelings of their patients. Many patients, ______at first by the intimacy of the situation, begin to feel more ______as they become familiar with their therapist. Many therapists use a technique called free association, which allows the patient to make ______connections between ideas and thoughts. Sometimes, the therapist can learn a lot about a patient's history from the simple description of ______or ______experiences. With time, even the patients feel ______in the information they can learn about themselves.

Finding key information

Summaries are an important tool for efficient readers to use: often, you can learn just as much from reading a section summary as you can from reading the entire section. A good summary is brief and to the point: it succinctly presents the key points of the section and in some cases asks the reader to think about the relationship between the section just read and other sections of the text. The summary structure is easily mapped, as we have seen with other structures. Look at the chart below after reading the section under the heading, "Psychopharmacology: Treating Psychological Disorders with Drugs" on pages 549.

Summary statement: When the anti-depressant medication has restored the person's chemical imbalance, he or she may think more clearly and deal more effectively with problems, in addition to feeling less depressed.

â

to think about: By making constructive changes in their lives, some previously depressed people can discontinue the antidepressant medication without a return of symptoms; but others need to continue the medication to prevent the return of serious depression.

Practice identifying the main elements in summary statements by filling out the chart below based on the information found in the final paragraph in the section titled " Carl Rogers and Client-Centered Therapy” This paragraph can be found on pages 539. When you are finished, check your answer against the answer key.

summary statement:

â

to think about:

Examining structural clues

In this chapter, the authors evaluate each treatment therapy once they have given a full explanation. In presenting their evaluation of each therapy, they use caveats to present the arguments both for and against each type of treatment. In this manner, they are striving to be non-judgmental, as many of these techniques are being used favorably today. Look at these examples of caveats. Can you identify any key terms and special structures used to formulate these ideas?

Critics argue that the basic tenets of humanistic therapy, such as self-actualization and self-awareness, are difficult to test scientifically. Nevertheless, humanistic theory can help unhappy people, if not the severely disturbed, to understand themselves better.

Despite the overwhelmingly positive aspects of most group therapy, there is a special problem that must be addressed: 'pop therapies.'

Unfortunately, people can easily develop tolerance to anxiety drugs, requiring increasing dosages to get the same effects.

In spite of the problems associated with antipsychotic drugs, they have led to revolutionary changes in mental health.

Partly because we can't explain how it works, but also because it seems barbaric and it causes memory loss, ECT is a controversial treatment.

As you read through the chapter, locate 5 more caveats. Write them in the spaces below. Then, examine the sentence structure used in each – what is the principle argument? What is being refuted?

1. ______

______

2. ______

______

3. ______

______

4. ______

______

5. ______

______

Answer key

Testing your knowledge of idioms and other vocabulary

a. 1; / b. 8; / c. 4; / d. 2; / e. 5; / f. 6; / g. 3; / h. 7;

Reviewing your knowledge of English grammar

Psychoanalysts are interested in the thoughts and feelings of their patients Many patients, embarrassed at first by the intimacy of the situation, begin to feel more relaxed as they become familiar with their therapist Many therapists use a technique called free association, which allows the patient to make surprising connections between ideas and thoughts Sometimes, the therapist can learn a lot about a patient's history from the simple description of frightening or bewildering experiences With time, even the patients feel interested in the information they can learn about themselves.

Finding key information

summary statement:
Client-centered therapy, like psychoanalysis and cognitive therapies, explores thoughts and feelings to obtain insight into the causes for behaviors.

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to think about:
Clients are responsible for discovering their own maladaptive patterns, while the therapist provides an accepting atmosphere in which the client can freely explore important thoughts and feelings.

Examining structural clues

Answers will vary.

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