Developmental psychology.pdf

480 Integration of Behavior
Figure 17.18
Mental Health Centers. Many
halfway houses, known by such
names as "The Gate" and "The
Open Door," assist troubled
adolescents in re-entering normal life
through the development of interests
in music, art, writing, and other forms
of personal expression.
the old asylums, but in crowded, low-income areas, where the incidence of mental
disorders is often highest. In addition to drug and supportive therapy, these centers
offer nursing services, social and recreational programs, evening clinics, and halfway
houses for people trying to make a readjustment in the community after a period of
hospital residence (Figure 17.18).
To solve the problem of finding sufficient personnel for these centers, the staff
often includes a number of paraprofessional people, who do not have broad professional
training but nevertheless have learned the basic elements of a selected aspect of mental
health care. These nonprofessional workers can expedite programs in many ways, often
through their own residence and personal contacts in the neighborhood. Among other
contributions, they can intervene temporarily in critical home and work situations,
bridge the gap between client and professional service, develop meaningful relations
with the disturbed individuals, and in some cases offer forms of therapy as well.
The other major dimension of the preventive mental health movement is educating
the public. Part of this task lies in obtaining answers to numerous unanswered
questions, but another part lies in communicating to laypersons what is already known
about mental disorders. Direct contact with mental patients promotes this understanding;
communities with open-ward mental hospitals seem to have more accepting attitudes
than those with locked wards. Significant attitude changes have been observed
among college students who have had regular contact with chronic mental patients
(Holzberg & Knapp, 1965).
Whether the preventive mental health approach would have made a difference
with G. and J. W. must be left to speculation. But it certainly was not an issue with
the boy. Instead, our current knowledge about the origins and treatment of emotional
problems owes some debt to the early, exploratory research with poor Little Albert.
Summary
Psychotherapy
1. Psychotherapy involves a series of interviews between a person seeking
assistance and a therapist who listens, questions, or otherwise creates an
atmosphere conducive to dealing with emotional problems. In
psychoanalysis three techniques are emphasized: free association, in which
the person attempts to express whatever comes to mind; transference, in
which the person responds to the therapist as though he or she were
someone else; and interpretation, in which the person, with the aid of the
analyst, tries to determine the deeper, underlying meanings of certain
behaviors, including dreams.