Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods within the field of psychotherapy that seeks to elucidate connections among unconscious components of patients' mental processes, and to do so in a systematic way through a process of tracing out associations. In classical psychoanalysis, the fundamental subject matter of psychoanalysis is the unconscious patterns of life as they become revealed through the analysand's (the patient's) free associations. The analyst's goal is to help liberate the analysand from unexamined or unconscious barriers of transference and resistance, that is, past patterns of relatedness that are no longer serviceable or that inhibit freedom. More recent forms of psychoanalysis seek, among other things, to help patients gain self-esteem through greater trust of the self, overcome the fear of death and its effects on current behavior, and maintain several relationships that appear to be incompatible.

External links

• Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association online
• A Glossary of Freudian Terms
• Abstracts of the Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud
• Sigmund Freud - Life and Work
• The Skeptic's Dictionary Entry on Psychoanalysis
• International Psychoanalytical Studies Organization
• International Psychoanalytical Association
• Australian Psychoanalytical Society (component of IPA)
• Psychoanalysis Downunder - online journal of APAS
• The International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
• The American Psychoanalytic Association
• The New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute
• Essays about the pros and cons of psychoanalysis
• William Alanson White Institute
• New York Freudian Society
• website with links to many articles on psychoanalysis