ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud qualified as a physician initially accepting the dominant medical paradigm that ‘nervous diseases’ could be explained by pathology of nerves. Later, he developed an alternative paradigm, hypothesising that ‘mental illness’ could be explained by psychological pathology. Freud was the originator of the talking therapy, and his method was based on the concept of the unconscious. Others adopted the idea of the unconscious, forming a psychoanalytic movement where patients were treated with talking therapy. These other psychoanalysts accepted the idea of the unconscious, but many had differences in theory and therapeutic approach compared to Freud - in particular Jung, whose theory of personality forms the basis of the modern Myers-Briggs personality inventory. Melanie Klein and Anna Freud developed psychoanalysis for children but had differences in theory and method of therapy, as well as having differences with the original approach suggested by Sigmund Freud. The common factors or contextual model explains how these very different therapeutic approaches help despite being so different. Research shows that all psychotherapies, including those practised today, produce on average similar results in terms of outcome. The contextual model proposes that the benefit of psychotherapy is caused by factors common to all psychotherapies: relationship, expectancy and ritual.
