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.

Other definitions

Psychoanalysis is:

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• A therapeutic technique for the treatment of neurosis.
• A technique used to train psychoanalysts. A basic requirement of psychoanalytic training is to undergo a successful analysis.
• A technique of critical observation. The successors and contemporaries of Freud—Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Wilhelm Reich, Melanie Klein, Wilfred Bion, Jacques Lacan, and many others—have developed Freud's theories and advanced new theories using the basic method of quiet critical observation and study of individual patients and other events.
• A body of knowledge so acquired.
• A clinical theory. See, for example, "Ordinary Language Essentials of Clinical Psychoanalytic Theory" by Wynn Schwartz.
• A movement, particularly as led by Freud, to secure and defend acceptance of the theories and techniques.

Psychoanalysis involves extended exploration of the self, a realization of the Delphian motto, "Know thyself". In this it resembles the extended meditative practices of Buddhist monastic schools such as Zen. If successful, it gives a person the capacity to be present in the moment, responding authentically to circumstances, being free of infantile responses inappropriate to the situation.

Related Topics:
Self - Delphian - Meditative - Zen

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Today psychoanalytic ideas are imbedded in the culture, especially in childcare, education, literary criticism, and in psychiatry, particularly medical and non-medical psychotherapy. Though there is a mainstream of evolved analytic ideas, there are groups who more specifically follow the precepts of one or more of the later theoreticians.

Related Topics:
Childcare - Education - Literary criticism - Psychiatry - Medical - Psychotherapy - Mainstream - Ideas - Precept

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