Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalytic treatment promotes insights into one’s emotional experiences, thoughts, and behaviors. However, the most potentially transformative aspects of psychoanalysis involve embodied changes in how one experiences one's being and ways of relating to oneself, others, and the larger world. This involves greater freedom to make deliberate and more meaningful choices regarding how one lives.

Psychoanalysis involves both a set of theories and a treatment modality that has evolved considerably over the course of the past 125 years. Contemporary psychoanalytic practice retains several core elements that have withstood the test of time, while leaving behind erroneous and outdated understandings. Most psychoanalysts today also integrate insights from other psychological models in how they understand and respond to the human condition. 

At the core of psychoanalysis is the belief that forces outside of conscious awareness - such as repressed emotions, desires, and internalized relational experiences that were structuralized in the mind early on - significantly shape human behavior. Each person’s unique learning history, including what our bodies (i.e., nervous system) experienced before our brains were developed enough to form cognitive-based memories – begins in early childhood and is carried in one way or another throughout the lifespan. Thus, unprocessed experiences and unresolved conflicts become major foci of analytic attention.

Through techniques like free association, dream analysis, and transference interpretation, psychoanalysts help individuals uncover and address these unconscious influences, leading to greater self-awareness and emotional healing. Free association, a primary and traditional technique in psychoanalysis, involves patients speaking freely about their thoughts, feelings, and memories. This form of uncensored speech allows hidden aspects of the unconscious mind to surface, revealing patterns and connections that contribute to psychological distress. By examining these associations, psychoanalysts guide patients toward insights that can lead to profound personal growth.

Dream analysis is another focus of attention in psychoanalysis. Freud, Jung and others believed that dreams are a window into the unconscious, revealing repressed desires, unresolved conflicts, and other hidden truths. Analyzing the symbolic content of dreams can help individuals understand their inner struggles and gain insight into their waking lives. This practice provides valuable clues to the underlying issues affecting a person's mental health.

Transference, a human phenomenon in which a person project feelings and attitudes from past relationships onto a current relationship, is a vital component of psychoanalytic therapy. In the safe and supportive environment of the treatment relationship, a patient's transference can emerge more clearly, allowing for a process involving a reliving and re-examining of significant emotional experiences in past relationships. By working through these transferred emotions, patients can make contact with, release, and resolve long-standing conflicts and develop healthier ways of relating to others. 

Alongside transference, there are actual (i.e., real and not projected) ruptures that sometimes occur in the treatment relationship. The ways in which these ruptures are addressed and repaired can also be a very significant element of successful treatment.

Psychoanalysis also emphasizes the importance of understanding defense mechanisms, which are unconscious strategies the mind employs to protect itself from anxiety associated with emotional pain and conflict. These mechanisms - such as splitting, denial, projection, repression, dissociation, and intellectualization - can be adaptive in some situations, but hinder emotional growth and lead to maladaptive behaviors when reflexively overused or rigidly maintained. Through psychoanalytic therapy, individuals learn to recognize and address their defenses, develop the capacity to bear a wider range of emotional experience, which leads to greater emotional resilience and psychological well-being.

The therapeutic relationship in psychoanalysis is characterized by trust, empathy, and non-judgmental support. This alliance between therapist and patient creates a safe space for exploring deeply rooted emotions and experiences. The therapist's role is to facilitate self-discovery and provide guidance, helping patients navigate the complexities of their unconscious mind.