4.1 Psychoanalysis

• What is involves


  - verbal therapy that patients verbalise their thoughts

  - through this they aim to access the subconscious mind where repressed trauma is stored, causing the criminal behaviour

  - talking will bring trauma to into the conscious mind so it can be dealt with directly
• How its used for offenders


  - helps criminals identify traumas and negative emotions that could lead to offending

  - through regular therapy the unconscious mind can be explored to find motives
• Study


  - Aichorn 1931: modified the treatment and was successful.

  - he theorised that an over harsh or weak superego lead to unbearable feelings of guilt, which are dealt with by repression.

  - this guilt doesnt go away and instead becomes a motivator for crime.

  - these feelings of guilt are only satisfied when they are punished for the crime.
• Why is it ineffective?


  - appropriate: it is very time consuming and expensive. It takes a while to uncover repressed memories,

  - effective: not very many strengths in evaluation. In a study, eysenck found that 44% of patients with neurosis improved with psychoanalysis whereas 72% improved with a GP

  - ethical: rediscovering painful memories would make an offender emotionally volatile and actually increase offending. There is also a power imbalance between the therapist and the offender, the therapist may exploit or manipulate the vulnerable offender.
• Why is it effective?


  - Shelder (2010): was just as effective and worked just as well as other forms of treatment.