Psychoanalytic therapy is a form of talk therapy based on Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis. The approach explores how the unconscious mind influences your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Specifically, it examines how your experiences (often from childhood) may be contributing to your current experience and actions. Psychoanalytic approaches to emotional disorders have advanced a great deal since Freud’s time.
Freud described the unconscious as the reservoir of desires, thoughts, and memories that are below the surface of conscious awareness. He believed that these unconscious influences could often lead to psychological distress and disturbances.
Techniques
People undergoing psychoanalytic therapy often meet with their psychoanalyst at least once a week. They can remain in therapy for months or even years.
Psychoanalysts use a variety of techniques to gain insight into your behavior. Some of the more popular techniques include:
- Dream interpretation: According to Freud, dream analysis is by far the most important psychoanalytic technique. He often referred to dreams as “the royal road to the unconscious.” Psychoanalysts may interpret dreams to get insight into the workings of your unconscious mind.
- Free association: Free association is an exercise during which the psychoanalyst encourages you to freely share your thoughts. This can lead to the emergence of unexpected connections and memories.
- Transference: Transference occurs when you project your feelings about another person onto the psychoanalyst. You’ll then interact with them as if they were that other person. This technique can help your psychoanalyst understand how you interact with others.
Psychoanalysts spend a lot of time listening to people talk about their lives, which is why this method is often referred to as “the talking cure.”
What Psychoanalytic Therapy Can Help With
Psychoanalytic therapy may be used to treat a number of different psychological conditions, including:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Emotion struggles or trauma
- Identity problems
- Self-esteem issues
- Self-assertion
- Psychosomatic disorders
- Relationship issues
- Self-destructive behavior
- Sexual problems
Benefits of Psychoanalytic Therapy
What makes psychoanalytic therapy different from other forms of treatment? A review of the research comparing psychoanalytic approaches to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) identified seven features that set the psychoanalytic approach apart.
- Focuses on emotions. Where CBT is centered on cognition and behaviors, psychoanalytic therapy explores the full range of emotions that a patient is experiencing.
- Explores avoidance. People often avoid certain feelings, thoughts, and situations they find distressing. Understanding what a client is avoiding can help both the psychoanalyst and the client understand why such avoidance comes into play.
- Identifies recurring themes. Some people may be aware of their self-destructive behaviors but unable to stop them. Others may not be aware of these patterns and how they influence their behaviors.
- Exploration of past experienced. Other therapies often focus more on the here-and-now, or how current thoughts and behaviors influence how a person functions. The psychoanalytic approach helps people explore their pasts and understand how it affects their present psychological difficulties. It can help patients shed the bonds of past experience to live more fully in the present.
- Explores interpersonal relationships. Through the therapy process, people are able to explore their relationships with others, both current and past.
- Emphasizes the therapeutic relationship. Because psychoanalytic therapy is so personal, the relationship between the psychoanalyst and the patient provides a unique opportunity to explore and reword relational patterns that emerge in the treatment relationship.
- Free-flowing. Where other therapies are often highly structured and goal-oriented, psychoanalytic therapy allows the patient to explore freely. Patients are free to talk about fears, fantasies, desires, and dreams.
As with any approach to mental health treatment, psychoanalytic therapy can have its pluses and minuses. Before deciding on this approach, it’s important to take these factors into account.
Effectiveness
Success often hinges on the ability to confront potentially stressful or triggering experiences. While some critics have derided the success rates of psychoanalytic therapy, research suggests that both long- and short-term psychoanalytic therapy can effectively treat a range of conditions.
Long-term psychoanalytic therapy is usually defined as lasting one year or 50 sessions. Short-term psychoanalytic therapy, on the other hand, is defined as fewer than 40 sessions or less than one year of treatment.
Symptom Reduction
One review of the effectiveness of long-term psychoanalytic therapies found moderate to large success rates for reducing symptoms of a variety of psychopathologies.
A 2021 review of studies found that short-term psychoanalytic therapy led to lasting improvements in somatic symptoms, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms.
Lasting Improvements
People who receive psychoanalytic treatment tend to retain these gains. Most continue to improve even after therapy ends. On the other hand, the benefits of other evidence-based therapies tend to diminish over time.
A 2010 review published in the American Psychologist suggested that psychoanalytic therapy was as effective as other evidence-based therapies.
Things to Consider
As with all treatment methods, there are also potential downsides that should be considered. This form of therapy tends to require ongoing sessions. Traditional psychoanalysis could involve three to five sessions a week for several years, however psychoanalysis psychotherapy is less frequent and may be undertaken once to twice a week. Depending on how long your therapy lasts, the costs can mount up.
Psychoanalytic therapy can also be an intense process. It involves evoking emotional responses and often challenges established defense mechanisms. While the process can sometimes result in uneasiness, it can also help you understand the unconscious forces that exert an influence over your current behavior.
The Best Online Therapy Programs
We’ve tried, tested and written unbiased reviews of the best online therapy programs including Talkspace, Betterhelp, and Regain.
How to Get Started
If you think you or someone you love would benefit from psychoanalytic therapy, the first step is to seek out a trained professional. To find a qualified psychoanalyst, start by asking your primary care physician for recommendations. You can also search the directory available on the American Psychoanalytic Association’s website.
Friends who have had a good experience with psychoanalytic treatment can also be another good source of recommendations. If you do not have a good referral from someone you know, there are a number of online psychoanalyst networks and directories that can point you in the right direction.
Once you have identified a potential psychoanalyst, make a call to set up an initial consultation. During this consultation, you can further explore if psychoanalytic therapy is the right approach for you.
Psychoanalytic therapy is just one mental health treatment approach that you may want to consider. Always talk to your doctor or therapist to determine which psychotherapy method might be the most effective for your individual needs.
Who Was Sigmund Freud?
Sigmund Freud, often known as the father of psychoanalysis, is one of the most important figures in the early development of the field of psychology. An Austrian neuroscientist, he was one of the most important thinkers of the early 20th century and pioneered many psychological concepts, including the unconscious, repression, psychoanalysis, and talk therapy.
Freud was active during the early 20th century and was a notable figure in both Europe and America. He resided in Vienna for most of his life, along with his wife and children, and he practiced psychoanalysis and wrote prolifically on a variety of topics, including psychology, literature, and religion. Freud gained a dedicated following, with many other scientists and intellectuals influenced by his work. Fleeing the rising power of the Nazis, Freud immigrated to London in 1938, where he continued to write and practice. After suffering cancer in his jaw, he passed away in 1939.
While scientists may no longer consider all of his ideas to be accurate, Freud had a significant lasting impact on the fields of psychology and psychiatry, particularly in the area of psychotherapy. Freud’s influence also extends more broadly to Western culture as a whole, including the fields of philosophy, literary criticism, and religious studies, with many of his ideas deeply permeating the fabric of our society.
Learn More About Freud’s Theories And Psychoanalysis
Connect With A Therapist Today
Early Life
Freud was born on May 6, 1856, to Jewish Ukrainian parents in Freiburg, Moravia, a small town then part of the Austrian Empire. Freud and his family moved to Leipzig and later to Vienna. Freud was a brilliant student, studying literature, biology, and medicine, and graduated with a degree in medicine from the University of Vienna in 1881.
Freud read widely as a young student, and his later theories are thought to have been influenced by various contemporaneous scientists and researchers, as well as by prominent continental philosophers, such as Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. Freud was also a dedicated reader of Shakespeare, whose literary influence can be detected in many of Freud’s works.
Career
Freud worked for several years as a doctor at Vienna General Hospital before setting up a practice to focus specifically on psychological disorders. Freud was a groundbreaker in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis, pioneering the scientific study of the mind, repressed thoughts and memories, and the influence of sexual development on a psychological disorder.
A prolific writer, Freud published numerous books and essays throughout his career, including The Interpretation of Dreams, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, The Ego and the Id, and Civilization and its Discontents. As he continued to develop and refine his thought, he garnered renown both in Europe and in the United States, and he had a wide array of students who would become well known, including Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and many other prominent scientists and thinkers of the early 20th century.
Freud was a practicing psychoanalyst for much of his career, often treating high-profile patients and writing about their symptoms using pseudonyms. Freud’s treatment included therapies such as free association, during which patients were encouraged to speak freely in a stream-of-conscious style with direction from Freud, and the interpretation of dreams, in which Freud listened to accounts of remembered dreams and subsequently analyzed their unconscious significance.
Freud And Psychoanalysis
One of Freud’s most well-known contributions to the field of psychology was the development of the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. Some of the major tenets of psychoanalysis include the significance of the unconscious, early sexual development, repression, dreams, transference, and death and life drives.
In terms of practical treatment, psychoanalytic sessions tend to feature a process of free association, whereby clients discuss thoughts, feelings, memories, and dreams, and the psychoanalyst may attempt to uncover elements of their unconscious thoughts and desires. One of the key components of psychoanalysis is the idea that psychological disorders may stem from childhood trauma and repressed sexuality. The task of the psychoanalyst is often to uncover these buried experiences and feelings to reduce the tension between the conscious and unconscious minds.
The Unconscious
One of the significant concepts in the study of psychoanalysis is the unconscious. According to Freud, certain ideas, thoughts, and memories may be repressed and made unavailable to the conscious mind. When this happens, they may not simply disappear but instead reside in the unconscious, and they may continue to affect the mind as a whole.
In particular, the unconscious may be home to repressed memories of childhood trauma, as well as to repressed sexual urges. These memories and desires can come into conflict with a person’s conscious desires and ideas, the result of which may be a psychological disorder, according to Freud.
The Id, Ego, And Superego
According to Freud, the human mind can be divided into three distinct parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the unconscious seat of many human impulses, desires, and drives. The id is present from birth and involves the satisfaction of basic needs, including hunger, thirst, and libido.
The superego is the component of the mind that makes moral decisions regardless of practical circumstances. The superego often reflects cultural rules, including those taught by parents, and involves ideas such as right and wrong, guilt, shame, and judgment.
The ego attempts to balance the conflicting desires of the id and superego. In doing so, the ego often engages in various defense mechanisms, including repression, rationalization, and projection, to manage the conflicting ideas and impulses of the id and superego.
Sexuality And Development
In Freud’s theory of sexual development, people possess sexual drives from infancy onward. These drives progress through various stages, including oral, anal, and phallic stages. According to Freud, psychological disorder is often represented by regression to one of these earlier stages of development.
One of Freud’s most famous theories about sexual development is the Oedipus complex. This complex is named after the protagonist of Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus Rex unknowingly murders his father and sleeps with his mother. The complex refers to the idea that children experience unconscious sexual desire toward the parent of the opposite sex.
Freud And Dreams
According to Freud, dreams are a form of thought that can disguise and ameliorate the more disturbing aspects of the unconscious. For this reason, dreams are often veiled in symbolism and images that are difficult to interpret on a literal level. While Freud’s theory characterizes dreams as a sort of wish fulfillment, the manifest content of a dream’s narrative often seems unrelated, and the latent content of unconscious desires can be difficult to uncover. During psychoanalytic sessions, dreams can often be discussed to analyze them for possible unconscious thoughts, feelings, and desires.
Learn More About Freud’s Theories And Psychoanalysis
Connect With A Therapist Today
Freud’s Legacy
Freud widely popularized the practice of psychotherapy throughout the Western world, including talk therapy in general, as well as psychoanalysis in particular. Freud’s students, including Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Jacques Lacan, and many others, continued to develop theories of psychoanalysis after his death, often diverging from Freud’s legacy to create their own respective theories and disciplines.
While Freud was enormously influential in the fields of psychology and psychiatry, many of his ideas are contested by contemporary psychologists, who argue that scientific evidence does not always bear them out. In particular, Freud’s ideas about women, homosexuality, repression, and sexual development are often called into question by psychologists and scientists who believe these ideas may not be scientifically accurate.
Freud also had a lasting influence in fields outside of psychology and science, including philosophy, literary criticism, and religious studies. In particular, Freud had a significant impact on continental philosophy, including philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Louis Althusser, and Jacques Derrida. Freud has also had a lasting effect on literary criticism, with Freudian interpretations offering a significant lens through which to analyze and interpret literary texts. While Freud’s influence may have waned somewhat in the field of psychology, his intellectual contributions to literary theory and comparative literature continue to have a significant place in the field.
Freud Today
One of Freud’s most lasting contributions to the field of psychology is the popularization of talk therapy. Due in part to Freud and his students and followers, therapy became a popular and effective way to treat a variety of psychological disorders. Although some of Freud’s ideas may have fallen out of fashion, the central focus of his practice is still widely implemented, including dialogue between client and therapist, along with a concerted effort to understand and improve an individual’s mental states. While this “talking cure” may not be a perfect fit for all patients, it can have a significant impact on those looking to improve their mental health and learn more about themselves.
Nowadays, talk therapy can be accessed online, and research shows online therapy is just as effective as in-person therapy for several mental health concerns, including anxiety and depression. Also, online therapy tends to be more affordable than traditional therapy, and you can receive therapy from home or anywhere with an internet connection.
Takeaway
Whether you would like help understanding yourself better, need professional advice, or are simply looking for someone to talk to, therapy could be a great choice for mental health support. Get in touch today to learn more about BetterHelp’s online therapy services.
