Psychoanalysis Therapy

Psychoanalysis is the oldest formal therapeutic treatment developed by Dr. Sigmund Freud in the early twentieth century.  In this treatment, the therapist helps the patient become more aware of unconscious influences stemming from childhood experiences.  The theory is that by figuring out and understanding the impact of one’s early traumas that the person will become more stable (healed?) in the present.  Traditional psychoanalysis treatment can last several years with sessions scheduled four or five times a week.  A major part of psychoanalysis is the examination of a person’s defense mechanisms.  Usually medication therapy is not used with psychoanalysis.

Key Elements to Treatment Include Analyzing These Conditions:

Transference is when a patient transfers feelings and reactions from the  past onto the therapist.  The person then begins to understand how his past is linked to his present emotional functioning.

Countertransference is when a therapist transfers feelings and reactions from the past onto the patient. 

Resistance is the reluctance to think about or even discuss some topic. Analyzing a patient’s resistances provide clues to the most traumatic, sensitive areas in a person’s past.  These areas are where the therapeutic work needs to be focused.

Psychoanalysts use the techniques of free association (where the patient talks about anything that comes to mind) and dream analysis to help uncover the buried, unconscious, repressed childhood memories.