What Is Psychoanalysis And What Is it Used For?
What is Psychoanalysis?
Psychotherapists Psychoanalysis is based on theories and techniques that relate to the study of the subconscious mind. Together they form a Psychotherapy treatment method for certain mental health disorders. Psychoanalysis was first used in the early 1890s by Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, and was partly based on clinical work carried out by Josef Breuer and others in the field of psychology. The term was retained by Freud as his own school of thought that set out the basic tenets of psychoanalysis:
– That a person’s development is often determined by forgotten early childhood events and not only by inherited traits;
– Human cognition and behaviours are determined largely by irrational drives rooted deep in the unconscious;
– Attempting to bring these drives into conscious awareness causes resistance that takes on the form of defence mechanisms, in particular repression;
– Conflicts between the conscious and unconscious can result in mental disturbances such as anxiety, depression, neurotic traits, and neurosis;
– Unconscious material may surface in dreams and unintentional acts such as slips of the tongue and peculiar mannerisms;
– Liberation from these unconscious effects can be achieved by the use of therapeutic intervention to bring repressed material to consciousness;
– Transference is the centrepiece of the psychoanalytic process where patients can relive infantile conflicts by projecting feelings of dependence, anger, or love onto the analyst.
What is Psychoanalysis Used For?
When people enquire about psychoanalysis they are usually interested in the treatment. As a therapy, the practice is based on the tenet that individuals are mostly unaware of the many factors that determine their behavior and emotions. These factors may cause unhappiness in some people that are sometimes recognizable as symptoms, and other times as disturbances in mood, low self-esteem, difficulties in love and work relationships, or troubling personality traits. Because these factors are unconscious help and advice from family or friends, self-help books or counseling often fail to provide any relief to the sufferer. www.psytherapy.co.uk/chelsea-psychotherapy is a local therapy clinic based in london that specialises in Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic therapy sessions typically lasts 50 minutes to an hour and ideally takes place up to four times per week. During a session, the patient expresses thoughts that run through their minds, including fantasies and free associations, and relates dreams to the therapist. By analysing the conflicts expressed by the patient, which includes the interpretation of transference (the patient’s feelings) and counter-transference (the analyst’s feelings for the patient) that takes place, the analyst addresses the pathological defences of the patient in an attempt to help the patient gain better insight into his or her problems.
Psychoanalysis remains a strong influence in psychiatry despite being a controversial discipline and despite having its validity contested by science. Psychoanalysts focus on listening to their patients in an effort to understand their problems. This is one of the traits of psychoanalysis that sets it apart from other mental health disciplines in which practitioners have the prime goal of prescribing �” either medication or behaviour �” to deal with a patient’s problems.