[Psychological concept of pain therapy. 1. Relaxation therapy, imagery methods, hypnotherapy and psychoanalysis]

In this article, the contribution of the psychotherapy schools to psychological pain therapy shall be explained. In the first part, relaxation methods, imaginative techniques hypnotherapy, and psychoanalysis as well as their importance for psychological pain therapy are presented. Research findings for autogenic training, progressive muscle relaxation and meditative methods are shown as example for relaxation methods. Imagery is shortly explained and associated to hypnotherapeutic methods. In hypnotherapy, research results, the pattern of a session and hypnotherapeutic strategies for pain reduction are demonstrated. In the explanation of psychoanalysis, the aims and explanation principles of analytic methods for the psychogenic pain development are shown.