Annual Review of Public Health

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH
Psychiatric nurse
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Answer 1
Psychiatric theories can be an important source of guidance for psychiatric mental
health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) as this can help them to determine the basis of different
behaviours of client and identify care priorities and needs of patients. For example, some
important theories in psychiatric nursing involve psychoanalytic theories, developmental
theories, theory of interpersonal relations and cognitive behavioural theories (CBT). Each of
these theories lays down a different perspective about mental illness and application of the
theory enables PMHNP to understand the nature and origin of symptoms as well as ways to
control them (Pehlivan & Güner, 2016). For example, the psychoanalytic theory by Freud and
Jung is based on the assumption that mental illness occurs because of unconscious powers in
human mind. It focuses on analysing the interactions between the id, the ego and the
superego and unconscious behaviours. Hence, PMHNP can use the theory to analyze mental
disorders by establishing strong therapeutic bond with patient (Guntrip, 2018). In addition,
the developmental theories help in determining the state of development and mood of
children. This theory can support nurse to explore existing power and skills of children.
Answer 2:
One of the important psychiatric theories is the Sigmund Freud’s theory and he
mainly invented the idea of the conflict between the conscious mind versus the unconscious
mind. The conscious mind is the things that an individual are aware of such as present
moment, current perceptions, feelings and memories and the unconscious mind is all those
things that are not easily available to awareness. For example, it may include a person’s
instincts and emotions associated with a trauma. Hence, Freud’s explanation was that the
unconscious mind is a source of motivation and the concept has relevance to the psychiatric
nursing practice at many points (Guntrip, 2018). Compared to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory

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which emphasizes on the conflict between the conscious and the unconscious mind, the
significance of the Hildegarde Peplau nursing theory is that it focuses on the four sequential
phases in the interpersonal relationship. Thus, Peplau’s theory give guidance to psychiatric
nurse on ways to develop therapeutic relationship with client and using the nursing skills to
help identify the problem behaviour (Hagerty et al., 2017). In contrast, the Freud’s
psychoanalytic theory offers nurse explanation about complex human process and
understanding the complexity of human behaviour. By considering the conscious and
unconscious influences of patient, the theory supports nurse to identify the root cause of
patient suffering (Guntrip, 2018). Another difference between the two theories is that the
Peplau’s theory is based on four components of orientation, identification, exploitation ad
resolution, whereas the Freud’s theory is based on the key components of id, ego and the
superego. The similarity between these theories is that to achieve the goals of each theory,
nurse need to have excellent communication skills to understand complex behaviour or
unique needs of different patient (Mitchell & Black, 2016).
Answer 3
One of the mental disorders listed in the DSM-5 criteria is schizophrenia. The Freud’s
psychoanalytic theory can help to understand how the disease has originated and why there is
a reason for complex behaviour in patient with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a mental
disorder characterized by loss of touch with reality, symptoms of hallucination, delusion and
difficulty in participation in daily life activities. Hence, symptoms like hallucination which is
most effect of the unconscious mind can be explored through Freud’s theory. Freud found
relation between the schizophrenics’s conscious speech and internal process that the affected
patient go through. He concluded that psychic process is linked to a free flow of energy and a
decrease in hallucinatory satisfaction to desire. It mentioned about difficulty in speech is seen
in such patients because of predominance of word representation compared to thing