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What Is Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a form of therapy founded by Sigmund Freud that focuses on releasing repressed emotions and experiences from the unconscious mind to make them conscious. It aims to understand the root causes of problems through techniques like free association and dream analysis. While influential to modern therapy, psychoanalysis is limited by its conceptual nature and lack of scientific evidence, though it can still help patients understand themselves on a deeper level.

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316 views

What Is Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a form of therapy founded by Sigmund Freud that focuses on releasing repressed emotions and experiences from the unconscious mind to make them conscious. It aims to understand the root causes of problems through techniques like free association and dream analysis. While influential to modern therapy, psychoanalysis is limited by its conceptual nature and lack of scientific evidence, though it can still help patients understand themselves on a deeper level.

Uploaded by

Nice tuazon
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What Is Psychoanalysis?

Psychoanalysis is a set of psychological theories and


methods of therapy founded by Sigmund Freud.
Psychoanalysis revolves around the belief that everyone
has unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires, and
memories.
Psychoanalysis therapy is used to release repressed
emotions and experiences. The goal is to make
unconscious thoughts conscious. This kind of therapy is
meant to find the root cause of the problem and cure it. ‌
Development of Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis was a theory first and is a therapy as well.
It’s a type of therapy that is used to treat depression and
anxiety disorders. This type of therapy promotes
awareness of unconscious, unproductive, recurring
patterns of emotion and behavior. This allows previously
unconscious parts of yourself to come together to promote
healing, healthy emotions and behavior, and creative
expression.
Psychoanalysis was developed by Sigmund Freud, who
faced a lot of criticisms over his work and theories.
However, psychoanalysis was incredibly influential for
modern-day therapy. Freud’s approach to therapy and the
idea that mental illness was treatable was an important
concept. The idea that talking about your problems could
help you feel relief heavily impacted the current approach
to treating mental illness.
Basics of Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a specialty in psychology. It’s different
from other specialties in the knowledge and intensive
treatment approaches that back it up. The goal of
psychoanalysis is to change and modify structural parts of
your emotional reasoning and personality.
A psychoanalyst uses many different techniques to
encourage you to think about why you’re acting and
behaving in certain ways. Psychoanalysts also get you to
think about the meaning behind your symptoms. In
Freud’s psychoanalysis, patients would look at and
interpret inkblots, free association, dream analysis, and
resistance and transference analysis.

A psychoanalyst may perform the following


procedures:
Assess cognitive and emotional functioning
Conduct regular appointments as determined by the
analyst and patient
Focus on boundary issues
Investigate significant present and past relationships
See the symbolic meaning behind emotional and physical
symptoms
Traditionally, psychoanalysis could require many years of
treatment. This is so the psychoanalyst could understand
and help resolve challenging behavior and coping
mechanisms. The reason for the long-term sessions was
also to help their patient recover lost emotional
connections, leave unhealthy relationships, and adapt
effectively to their current situation.
Psychoanalytic therapists determine the length of
treatment based on the patient's needs. This could be
once or twice weekly and could last several weeks. There
are still some cases where therapy lasts several years.
The goal is to make sure their patients understand
themselves better so they can stop repeating old patterns
and heal.

SUGGESTED
Limitations of Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is rooted in theory but doesn’t revolve
around science. There is a push to ensure that the
evidence of success in psychoanalysis is strengthened by
data-gathering methods and a systematic outlook.

The idea of the unconscious mind was hard to grasp by


philosophers during Freud’s day. Many didn’t believe in an
unconscious state. The new challenge is that Freud’s
theory for psychoanalysis is conceptual and doesn’t fit
new neurological advances.

Today, more medications are being used to treat


emotional disorders and psychiatric conditions. However,
that doesn’t mean the end of psychoanalysis.

Impact of Psychoanalysis on Mental Health


Psychoanalysis focuses on the influence of repressed
impulses, internal conflicts, and childhood traumas and
how they affect mental health. Psychoanalysis as a
therapy aims to modify your personality by focusing on
redirecting your habits. Therapists look at how your
unconscious conflicts in your mind have led to neurosis.

To improve these conflicts and resolve your problems,


psychoanalysts use free association and dream analysis,
analyze your resistance and deference mechanisms, and
work with you through your feelings.

Freud believed that the unconscious conflicts in your mind


caused anxiety, moodiness, depressive thoughts, troubling
personality traits, and difficulties maintaining relationships.
He believed these problems were rooted in past
experiences and relationships. That’s why psychoanalysis
focuses on long-term treatment.
This approach to therapy is different from other techniques
because it helps you uncover and understand why you
feel and behave the way you do, which is initially not
understood by the patient. Other therapeutic techniques
focus on helping you adjust unhelpful thoughts at the
moment without solving the root cause.
Finding a Psychoanalyst
To find a psychoanalyst, you can go to the American
Psychoanalytic Association. They have a list of analysts
who can start helping you with your mental health.
Depending on your needs, you could be referred to a
graduate analyst, an analyst in training, or a qualified
psychoanalytic psychotherapist.

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