Psychoanalysis is at once a way of learning about individual people, a comprehensive theoretical understanding of personality and behavior, and a unique therapeutic process. As a therapy, psychoanalysis is based on the tendency of people to repeat destructive emotional or behavior patterns that originate outside of their awareness.
By creating a consistently non-judgmental space, the analyst helps people talk about feelings, thoughts and fantasies they didn’t know they had. By accepting all these thoughts and feelings as valuable information, the analyst helps people learn to tolerate painful feelings and accept the disturbing and sometimes intriguing parts of themselves. In the context of this safety, a person addresses the underlying sources of his or her difficulties not simply intellectually, but emotionally, often by re-experiencing them with the analyst. When verbalized, intense feelings that come up with the analyst can be worked through, breaking old habits and developing new ways of responding.
Because psychoanalytic theory describes unconscious forces driving behavior, it also helps us understand how people work with or against each other, within or between groups. Such understanding is crucial for understanding organizational failures and social problems, and for designing successful organizational and social interventions.
Myths & Realities
When people think of psychoanalysis, they often think of the theories and method of treatment first introduced by Freud over 120 years ago. Many people are unaware that psychoanalytic ideas have continued to change and evolve, based on clinical experience and research in many fields. Compare myths and realities about psychoanalysis:
While psychoanalysts were slow to launch traditional research about psychoanalytic and psychodynamic therapy, in recent decades, we have seen an explosion of research on psychoanalytically influenced therapies and psychoanalytic concepts, including ample evidence supporting the efficacy of psychodynamic therapies. Faculty member Dr. Stephen Soldz provides a concise but comprehensive review of the current literature in his blog post on Research on Psychodynamic Therapies.
Psychoanalysis aims to understand people in their full complexity, accepting each person’s identity, including gender and sexual identity. Gender identity and sexual orientation are basic aspects of who we are, rooted in early life and affected by both biological dispositions and early experience. Rather than rejecting non-heteronormative identities, today’s psychoanalysts seek to understand and help each individual address causes of psychic suffering. These causes may include internal conflicts or conflicts with the external world around sexual and gender identity. In this area and more generally, psychoanalysts encourage people to understand themselves more fully at all levels.
Some training institutes still require an advanced degree from one of these three disciplines to become a psychoanalyst. However, other institutes and schools consider psychoanalysis to be a unique field of study and do not require prior training in any other profession. These programs prepare students with the common knowledge that all mental health professionals share, while providing them with full psychoanalytic training. The doors to psychoanalytic training are now open to any capable and motivated post-bachelor’s student who is interested in understanding unconscious forces.
Psychoanalysts see people on a schedule that best meets the needs of the individual person. This means that some people are seen more frequently than others. Often, they are seen on a weekly basis, but some people choose to attend more or less frequently than that.
It does take time to form a meaningful therapeutic alliance between a patient and analyst. However, the time required depends on the needs and character of the individual person in treatment and varies accordingly.
Modern analysts are trained to study their reactions to a patient to better understand the person and use these feeling states therapeutically in treatment. Emotional communications informed by these reactions can be very effective and can be used instead of or in addition to intellectual interpretations. Modern analysts believe in the importance of the use of self as a therapeutic tool.
The relationship between the patient and the analyst and what transpires between them in the here and now is an essential element of the therapeutic process. This relationship allows the analyst to understand and work to modify repetitive patterns, freeing the patient to experience growth and the possibility of a more satisfying life.
Modern psychoanalysts treat patients with various mental health concerns including those who suffer from personality disorders and psychosis. This opens up a broad range of patients to the benefits of psychoanalysis.
Understanding unconscious processes such as symbolic communication, resistance, repetition, transference, and countertransference helps to inform other areas of study. Appreciation of these factors is valuable when working with individuals and in other settings where destructive or repetitive patterns of behavior interfere with progress. Consequently, psychoanalysis, jointly with other disciplines, increases understanding of group functioning, social and cultural phenomena, and the requirements for social change.
Many would argue that psychoanalysis has not only maintained its relevance within the pop-culture landscape but has made a resurgence. As Joseph Bernstein wrote in his 2023 New York Times article, “Not Your Daddy’s Freud”, younger generations across the country are “rediscovering the talking cure”. Recent films, podcasts, magazines, and articles reflect the importance of psychoanalytic ideas and treatment to the personal, cultural, political, and social issues of today.
Among these, Parapraxis, first published in 2022 has been described as the first-ever popular magazine to explore the intersection between psychoanalytic ideas and social issues. There are many psychoanalytic podcasts, including the award-winning podcast Rendering Unconscious. The podcast was created in 2018 by analyst Dr. Vanessa Sinclair, who interviews psychoanalysts, activists, and artists, about their clinical practice, creative work, and the state of mental healthcare.