PSYCHOANALYSI

S
Psychoanalysis is a therapeutic approach and theory, founded by
Sigmund Freud, that seeks to explore the unconscious mind to uncover
repressed feelings and interpret deep-rooted emotional patterns, often
using techniques like dream analysis and free association.
The primary assumption of psychoanalysis is the belief that all people
possess unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires, and memories.
According to Freud, neurotic problems in later life are a product of the
conflicts that arise during the Oedipal phase of development. These
conflicts may be repressed because the immature ego is unable to deal
with them at the time.
Basic Assumptions
•Psychoanalytic psychologists see psychological problems as
rooted in the unconscious mind.
•Manifest symptoms are caused by latent (hidden) disturbances.
•Typical causes include unresolved issues during development
or repressed trauma.
•Freud believed that people could be cured by making
conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus
gaining insight.
•Treatment focuses on bringing the repressed conflict to
consciousness, where the client can deal with it.
Psychoanalytic therapy aims to create the
right sort of conditions so that the patient
can bring these conflicts into the
conscious mind, where they can be
addressed and dealt with. Only by having
a cathartic (i.e., healing) experience is the
person helped and “cured.”
How Can We Understand The Unconscious Mind?
Remember, psychoanalysis is a therapy as well as a
theory. Psychoanalysis is commonly used to treat
depression and anxiety disorders.
In psychoanalysis (therapy), Freud would have a patient
lie on a couch to relax, and he would sit behind them
taking notes while they told him about their dreams and
childhood memories. Psychoanalysis would be a
lengthy process, involving many sessions with the
psychoanalyst.
Traditionally, during psychoanalytic sessions, the
patient lies on a couch with the analyst seated just
behind and out of the patient’s line of vision. This
setup is believed to facilitate free association,
allowing the patient to speak freely without the
immediate reaction or perceived judgment from
the therapist. The absence of face-to-face
interaction is thought to help patients project their
feelings and transferences more easily.
During analysis, the analyst interprets the patient’s thoughts, actions and
dreams, and points out their defenses. By carefully waiting until the
patient himself is about to gain the same insight the analyst can
maximize the impact of the interpretation.
Related to these interpretations is the problem of the patient’s denial.
The analyst may well have reason to believe that a patient’s denial of an
interpretation offered by the analyst is another example of the defensive
process.
Analysis of defenses is emphasized by contemporary psychoanalysts
(known as ego analysts) who dispute the relatively weak role that Freud
assigned the ego (Davison & Neale, 1994). They argue that defence
mechanisms are the ego’s unconscious tools for warding off a
confrontation with anxiety.
Due to the nature of defense mechanisms and the
inaccessibility of the deterministic forces operating in the
unconscious, psychoanalysis in its classic form is a lengthy
process, often involving 2 to 5 sessions per week for several
years.
Of particular significance during psychoanalysis are the
patient’s attempts at resistance. They may attempt to block
discussion by changing the subject quickly, for example, or
even neglecting to turn up for therapy. Freud considered these
resistances a valuable insight into uncovering sensitive areas in
the patient’s unconscious mind.
The psychoanalyst uses various techniques as
encouragement for the client to develop
insights into their behavior and the meanings
of symptoms, including inkblots, parapraxes,
free association, interpretation (including
dream analysis), resistance analysis and
transference analysis.
1) Rorschach inkblots
Due to the nature of defense mechanisms and the inaccessibility of the
deterministic forces operating in the unconscious,
The Rorschach inkblot itself doesn't mean anything, it’s ambiguous (i.e.,
unclear). It is what you read into it that is important. Different people
will see different things depending on what unconscious connections
they make.
The inkblot is known as a projective test as the patient “projects”
information from their unconscious mind to interpret the inkblot.
However, behavioral psychologists such as B.F. Skinner have criticized
this method as being subjective and unscientific.
2) Freudian Slip
Unconscious thoughts and feelings can transfer to the conscious mind in the form of
parapraxes, popularly known as Freudian slips or slips of the tongue. We reveal
what is really on our mind by saying something we didn’t mean to.
Freud believed that these were no accidents but were due entirely to the workings of
the unconscious. As such, they were a valuable source of insight into this part of the
human mind. These are more technically known as parapraxes.
For example, a nutritionist giving a lecture intended to say we should always
demand the best in bread, but instead said bed. Another example is where a person
may call a friend’s new partner by the name of a previous one, whom we liked
better.
Freud believed that slips of the tongue provided an insight into the unconscious
mind and that there were no accidents, every behavior (including slips of the
tongue) was significant (i.e., all behavior is determined).
3) Free Association
A key part of learning to conduct psychoanalytic psychotherapy involves developing
skills and techniques aimed at accessing and understanding unconscious processes.
This includes facilitating the client’s free association, where the client expresses
whatever thoughts or feelings come to mind without censorship. As unconscious
ideas and emotions emerge, the therapist helps the client explore and make meaning
of them.
In free association, the patient is encouraged to speak freely and to verbalize
anything that comes to mind. In this way the patient may be able to bring content to
the surface that has previously been censored by the ego.
This technique involves a therapist giving a word or idea, and the patient
immediately responds in an unconstrained way with the first word that comes to
mind. The analyst then offers an interpretation of the relationship observed.
It is hoped that fragments of repressed memories will emerge in the course of free
association, giving an insight into the unconscious mind.
4) Dream Analysis
According to Freud, the analysis of dreams is “the royal road to the unconscious.”
He argued that the conscious mind is like a censor, but it is less vigilant when we are
asleep.
In dream analysis, the analyst attempts to unravel and interpret the symbolic nature
of the patient’s dreams. The true concerns of the patient are often disguised in their
dreams and may be experienced symbolically, i.e. they dream about something that
represents their concern, rather than dreaming directly about the concern itself. The
true concerns of the patient are often disguised in this symbolic form to protect the
conscious mind from developing full awareness of the underlying concern.
As a result, repressed ideas come to the surface – though what we remember may
well have been altered during the dream process.
As a result, we need to distinguish between the manifest content and the latent
content of a dream. The former is what we actually remember.
5) Transference Analysis
Another core technique is examining transference, which refers to how the client
relates to the therapist in ways that unconsciously reflect early important
relationships, and countertransference, the therapist’s own unconscious reactions to
the client that can give insight into the therapeutic relationship dynamics.
So, trainees learn to attend carefully to the emotional interchanges within the therapy
relationship as a source of insight into both parties’ unconscious relational patterns
stemming from their developmental histories.
Sometimes, these feelings were positive, but sometimes they were negative and
hostile. Freud assumed these were relics of attitudes held toward these important
persons in the patient’s past.
Freud felt that this transference was an inevitable aspect of psychoanalysis, and used
it to explain to patients the childhood origins of many of the concerns and fears.
In psychoanalysis, transference is seen as essential to a complete cure. Analysts use
the fact that transference is developing as a sign that an important repressed conflict
is nearing the surface.
Clinical Applications
Psychoanalysis (along with Rogerian humanistic counseling) is an
example of a global therapy (Comer, 1995, p. 143) which has the aim of
helping clients bring about a major change in their whole perspective on
life.
This rests on the assumption that the current maladaptive perspective is
tied to deep-seated personality factors. Global therapies stand in contrast
to approaches which focus mainly on a reduction of symptoms, such as
cognitive and behavioral approaches, so-called problem-based therapies.
Psychoanalytic therapy has been seen as appropriate mainly for the
neurotic disorders (e.g. anxiety and eating disorders) rather than for
psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. It is also used for depression
although its effectiveness in this area is more questionable because of the
apathetic nature of the depressive patients.
A related problem is the greater likelihood of transference in depressive
patients undergoing psychoanalysis. They are likely to show extreme
dependency upon important people in their life (including their
therapist) and more likely to develop transference (Comer, 1995).
Anxiety disorders such as phobias, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive
disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder are obvious areas where
psychoanalysis might be assumed to work.
The aim is to assist the client in coming to terms with their own id
impulses or to recognize the origin of their current anxiety in childhood
relationships that are being relived in adulthood. Svartberg and Stiles
(1991) and Prochaska and DiClemente (1984) point out that the
evidence for its effectiveness is equivocal.
Critical Evaluation
•Therapy is very time-consuming and is unlikely to provide
answers quickly.
•People must be prepared to invest a lot of time and money
into the therapy; they must be motivated.
•They might discover some painful and unpleasant memories
that had been repressed, which causes them more distress.
•This type of therapy does not work for all people and all types
of disorders.
•The nature of Psychoanalysis creates a power imbalance
between therapist and client that could raise ethical issues.
Attachment Theory vs Psychoanalysis
Attachment theory, developed by John Bowlby, and
psychoanalytic theory, developed by Sigmund Freud,
offer complementary perspectives on human
development and relationships.
While
attachment theory reacted against some psychoanalytic
views
, like drive theory, the two approaches converge on
many topics. Both see early childhood experiences as
shaping internal models that influence adult
Attachment research provides empirical evidence that unresolved issues
from childhood perpetuate across generations, a key psychoanalytic
claim. Concepts like internal working models and secure base align with
psychoanalytic ideas like transference and the therapeutic relationship
fostering insight.
However, attachment theory more strongly emphasizes the impact of
actual childhood events, whereas psychoanalysis highlights inner reality
and fantasy.
Both offer useful frameworks for understanding how relational patterns
persist or change across the lifespan. Their differences can spark
productive dialogue on the roles of inner and outer reality in
development.
Training
Psychoanalytic education also involves the trainee undergoing extensive personal
therapy, where through experiencing the therapy process directly they gain firsthand
insight into their own psychological conflicts, attachment history,
unconscious reactions, and clinical blind spots.
This helps develop self-awareness and attunement needed to understand and respond
helpfully to clients’ unconscious communications.
Finally, cultural competence requires analysts to engage in ongoing self-examination
around differences and power dynamics related to their own and their clients’
sociocultural identities and experiences.
Unconscious assumptions, biases, stereotypes etc. rooted in culture and
privilege/oppression influence clinical perceptions and relationships, so their ongoing
reflection upon is considered imperative.
The multiple layers of self-exploration around unconscious processes in one’s
personal therapy, clinical work, supervision, and sociocultural context form the
bedrock of psychoanalytic clinical education and skill development.
 THAT’S ALL,
THANK YOU 