what is psychoanalysis?
Psychoanalysis is based on the idea that people are frequently motivated by unrecognized wishes and desires that originate in one’s unconscious. In examining what lies beneath the surface of human behavior, psychoanalysis teaches us about the unconscious psychological forces within us outside of everyday awareness.
Talking with a trained psychoanalyst helps identify underlying problematic patterns and behaviors. By listening to patients’ stories, fantasies, and dreams, analyst and patient can discover paths toward the emotional freedom necessary to make substantive, lasting changes, and heal from past traumas.
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HOW YOU WOULD BENEFIT Psychoanalysis helps analysands be better able to understand themselves, to be more creative in all sorts of ways, and to relate to and care for others better. Because psychoanalysis aims to delve into deeper layers of the personality as the sources of one’s troubling thoughts and behavior, treatment can last several years, and sessions are scheduled at a minimum of three times per week. Such intensive analytic work is a big investment, not just financially, but in terms of time and psychic energy. However, this big investment in one’s life can produce significant rewards in terms of the ability (as Freud put it) to love and to work. |
THE PROCESS
Typically, psychoanalysis involves the patient coming several times a week and communicating as openly and freely as possible. While more frequent sessions deepen and intensify the treatment, frequency of sessions is worked out between the patient and analyst. |