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.

History

Psychoanalysis was first devised in Vienna in the 1890s by Sigmund Freud, a neurologist interested in finding an effective treatment for patients with neurotic or hysterical symptoms. As a result of talking with these patients, Freud came to believe that their problems stemmed from culturally unacceptable, thus repressed and unconscious, desires and fantasies of a sexual nature, and as his theory developed, he included desires and fantasies of an aggressive nature, as well. Freud considered these aspects of life instinctive drives, libidinal energy/Eros and the death instinct/Thanatos. Freud's description of Eros/Libido included all creative, life-furthering instincts. The Death Instinct represented an instinctive drive to return to a state of calm, or non-existence. Since Freud's day, psychoanalysis has developed in many ways especially as a study of the personal, interpersonal and intersubjective sense of self.

Related Topics:
1890s - Sigmund Freud - Neurotic - Hysterical - Symptom - Unconscious - Sexual - Aggressive - Instinctive drives - Eros - Thanatos - Intersubjective

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Prominent current schools of psychoanalysis include ego psychology, which emphasizes defense mechanisms and unconscious fantasies; self psychology, which emphasizes the development of a stable sense of self through mutually empathic contacts with other humans; Lacanian psychoanalysis, which integrates psychoanalysis with semiotics and Hegelian philosophy; analytical psychology, which has a more spiritual approach; object relations theory, which stresses the dynamics of one's relationships with internal, fantasized, others; interpersonal psychoanalysis, which accents the nuances of interpersonal interactions; and relational psychoanalysis, which combines interpersonal psychoanalysis with object-relations theory. Although these schools have dramatically different theories, most of them continue to stress the strong influence of self-deception and the influence a person's past has on their current mental life.

Related Topics:
Ego psychology - Self psychology - Lacan - Semiotics - Hegel - Analytical psychology - Object relations theory - Interpersonal psychoanalysis - Relational psychoanalysis

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A few of the most influential psychoanalysts are Sigmund Freud, Ronald Fairbairn, Sandor Ferenzci, Andre Green, Carl Jung, Melanie Klein, Julia Kristeva, Heinz Hartmann, David Rapaport, Ernst Kris, Jacques Lacan, Donald Winnicott, Margaret Mahler, Theodor Reik, Harry Stack Sullivan, Heinz Kohut, Slavoj Zizek, Otto Kernberg, Charles Brenner, Roy Schafer, Jacob Arlow, Daniel N. Stern, Erik Erikson, and Stephen A. Mitchell.

Related Topics:
Sigmund Freud - Ronald Fairbairn - Sandor Ferenzci - Andre Green - Carl Jung - Melanie Klein - Julia Kristeva - Heinz Hartmann - David Rapaport - Ernst Kris - Jacques Lacan - Donald Winnicott - Margaret Mahler - Theodor Reik - Harry Stack Sullivan - Heinz Kohut - Slavoj Zizek - Otto Kernberg - Charles Brenner - Roy Schafer - Jacob Arlow - Daniel N. Stern - Erik Erikson - Stephen A. Mitchell

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