CRISIS THEORY AND INTERVENTION COMPARED
Both crisis theory and intervention and psychodynamic intervention are applied in clinical practice in the treatment of individuals, couples, and families experiencing acute or chronic psychological distress (Cope, 1994, pp. 67 81). These two approaches to such treatment are compared in this research.
Psychodynamic therapy is based on the premise that an organism achieves adaptation through an interaction with the surrounding environment (Aguilera, 1990, p. 3). Within the psychodynamic context, behavior is viewed in terms of interaction as well as in terms of cause and effect with a goal of increasing the potential for survival of the organism. The immediate emphasis in psychodynamic therapy, therefore, is on the present, although the influence of the past is considered as a means of both understanding the cause of current states and developing strategies to overcome problems associated with these states. Interpretations in psychodynamic therapy, thus, always begin and end with current states.
The psychodynamic approach to crisis posits that an intervention must be characterized by aggressive education and counseling (Cope, 1994, pp. 67 81). Both direct and indirect approaches are employed in psychodynamic intervention to facilitate the adaptation process (Zilversmit, 1990, pp. 211 219). Milieu therapies are frequently used in psychodynamic crisis interventions (Bradley, 1987, pp. 289 308).
The interdisciplinary clinical approach to inpatient psychiatric treatment known as milieu therapy (a form of psychodynamic treatment), while still widely used, requires modification if it is to remain an effective treatment approach in the contemporary period (LeCuyer, 1992, pp. 108 118). Milieu therapy as a psychodynamic approach evolved during periods of economic and social conditions significantly different from those prevailing in the 1990s. Among the more significant of the change...