The subject of counseling and practice is coupled with a number of theories. These theories help counselors in the practice of counseling as they deal with different clients or patients. The essay is going to evaluate three of these theories. The theories include the Psychoanalytical theory, the behavioral theory and crisis counseling. The evaluation will be done on the concepts of the theories, and the developers of the theories will be identified and the strengths and weaknesses of the theory will also be discussed.

The Psychoanalytic theory is based on the concept of personality organization and development. The theory was developed in the late 19th century by Sigmund Freud (Safran, 2012). It has however undergone a number of changes and refinements since its inception. Sigmund Freud worked in collaboration with Dr. Josef Breuer in the study of psychoanalysis. Their study was centered on the case of Anna O. The results that were achieved from the case have been used to enhance the concepts that are related to the theory of psychoanalysis.

The concepts that have been used to identify the psychoanalysis theory include personality structure, the unconscious and the defense mechanisms. Sigmund Freud identified the personality structure as having three major elements which include the superego, ego and the id. The id is driven by basic needs. The basic needs in this context are instinctual such as hunger or thirst. It has been proven that the id is therefore driven by the pleasure principle. The ego on the other hand is driven by the reality principle. It works as a balancing factor between the id and the superego (Safran, 2012). It greatly considers the aspect of reality as it aims to satisfy the drives of the id. Finally, the superego is driven by the morality principle. Unlike the id, the superego does not instinctively act on its drive. Instead, it first considers what is socially acceptable. It uses the sense of guilt to help promote socially responsible behavior (Safran, 2012).

The unconscious is regarded to be the part of mind which the human being is not aware of. According to Sigmund Freud, it is the portion that exposes one’s true emotions and thoughts. The various methods that Freud has advocated to use while trying to access the unconscious include free association, hypnosis and dream analysis. Dreams have been determined to consist of latent and manifest content. The latent content is the content of the dream which the dreamer will not remember upon waking up. The manifest content, on the other hand, is the content of the dream that the dreamer will remember upon waking up and it can be used by a psychologist for analysis (Safran, 2012).

The defense mechanism is connected to the ego under the aspect of personality structure. The ego is, therefore, known to react in a bid to protect an individual from reality by distorting it. Various forms of defense mechanisms include denial, reaction formation, repression, sublimation, displacement, projection, rationalization and regression.

The psychoanalytic theory has a number of advantages. One of the advantages is that it puts emphasis on the importance of experiences one had during childhood (Safran, 2012). The theory also puts into consideration the importance of the unconscious which makes up the majority of peoples’ personalities. The theory also uses an approach that explains the aspect of the defense mechanism that explains why different people react differently to different situations. The theory has also come under criticism for its limitations. One of the limitations the theory has is that it focuses too much on pathology and lacks empirical data (Safran, 2012). The theory does not also explain the impact that culture has on one’s personality. These limitations have contradicted majorly with modern researches which do not support most of its ideologies.

An article by White (2000) uses the Psychoanalytic theory to explain the concept of ego and reality. He does an evaluation on independent ego energies presented in terms of competence. The author has used the concepts in psychoanalytic theory to explain a number of sections in personality such as self-esteem, ego strength and sense of competence.

The second theory that will be put into discussion is the cognitive theory. The theory focuses on the study of mental process. Some of these processes include memory, language use, attention, perception, thinking creativity and problem solving. The inception of the theory dates back to the times of the ancient Greeks. Plato, in 387 B.C came up with the idea that the brain is the seat of the processes that take place mentally. Rene Discartes in 1637 came up with the idea that human beings are born with their own innate ideas, a concept that was referred to as mind-body dualism. Debates have contributed to the development of the theory over time. Some of the psychologists involved in these debates include John Locke, George Beckley and Immanuel Kant (Treisman, 1980).

The mental process has four main aspects that affect human behavior. They include, but are not limited to, attention, memory, perception and metacognition. The main objective of attention is to filter out irrelevant data form the human mind. The human brain can simultaneously receive information in the form of visual, auditory, taste and olfactory networks. It has to filter out most of the information in order to avoid the brain being overloaded while trying to process (Treisman, 1980).

The concept of memory is subdivided into three subclasses. They include procedural, semantic and episodic memory. Procedural memory stores data for the performance of a particular type of task. The semantic memory acts like the brains encyclopedia. It serves purposes such as remembering people’s names and their appearances. The episodic memory contains information that is episodic in nature. Some of the episodic memory include, for example, when one last brushed his or her teeth (Treisman, 1980).

Perception is a two-way process that involves physical senses and cognitive processes. It helps people get acquainted with their environment through the interpretation of stimuli. Metacognition refers to the approach one has to his or her own thoughts. They include the ability one has to measure and monitor his or her own performance on a given task or objective. It also helps an individual understand his or her own capabilities and limitations (Treisman, 1980).

One of the major advantages of the cognitive theory is that it puts into consideration the process of thought. Other theories, such as the ones involved in the development of behavioral theories, ignored this aspect. The cognitive theory has been used in cognitive therapies. One of these therapies is referred to as Rational Emotive Therapy. It is used to change patient’s irrational thoughts to rational thoughts. One major weakness that stands out in the theory is that it is too mechanical. It uses the assumption that all human beings to have the same thinking process (Treisman, 1980).

One article by Anne Treisman talks about a feature-integration theory of attention. The author documents tests that used the cognitive theory concepts in order to identify people’s attention limits. Various predictions were used in the study such as texture segregation, visual touch, localization and identification. The study finally shows which tasks will exhibit attention limits in human beings and which will not. Counselors and psychologists can use the concepts of the theory to understand their patients’ general thinking processes (Treisman, 1980).

The third and final theory that will be evaluated in this essay is the crisis counseling. In psychology, crisis does not refer to a traumatic experience (Wiger, 2009). It is used to refer to the response an individual has to a certain situation. Crisis counseling developed in the First and the Second World War. Before this time, soldiers who exhibited the effects of the experiences they have had in war were considered to be weak. The treatment of these effects through crisis counseling showed that the soldiers were able to cope with their experiences much better (Wiger, 2009).

Crisis counseling is meant to minimize the stresses that one has had during a certain event. It is a brief procedure that focuses on the patient’s immediate situation. Some of the elements related to the concept of crisis counseling include situation assessment, education, offering support and the development of coping skills. The counselor would first have an assessment of the client’s current situation. It will help him gather knowledge that will help him to educate the client of the situation he is in. It is important that the client is offered support and helped in developing skills that will help him deal with the crisis (Wiger, 2009).

Crisis counseling helps individuals in dealing with and coping with challenges that they have encountered. The patients do not have to receive crisis counseling for the second time regarding a similar situation. They can simply use old coping habits to adapt to the crisis. Another advantage is that, other people can copy how others who have undergone crisis counseling and use their techniques in dealing with a certain crisis. The disadvantage of crisis counseling is that it might not be as effective and fast to each and every individual. This is because people have different ways of looking at issues and the coping skills might slightly differ (Wiger, 2009).

An article by Rosen (2010) gives an analysis of thirty-six crisis counseling projects. The article shows the importance of using crisis counseling in penetrating diverse community segments. The study was done on patients from 1996 to 2001. In order to deliver crisis counseling services to meet diverse local needs, there must be a wider community penetration as far as mental health services are concerned.

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