The method of therapy I am trained in originate from the techniques and sensibilities of psychoanalysis, the original scientific method that founded the art of therapeutic healing as we know it today. Its inventor, Sigmund Freud, made a lot of radical discoveries for his time, the main one being that the unconscious is an important driver of human behavior. Today, his influence is so ubiquitous that we take his ideas for granted.
Freud taught thousands of clinicians who came after him, and psychoanalysis has endured over the past century as a rich, provocative field of study contributing not only to psychology but to sociology, philosophy, and cultural theory. His contemporaries expanded on certain aspects of his work, re-interpreted and re-translated his writing, and adapted psychoanalysis to suit the unique needs of different cultures, different kinds of suffering, age groups, and socio economic classes. What follows is a basic description of principles and values that all psychoanalytic practitioners can agree on:
Psychoanalysis invites us to consider that we are not fully in control of our minds, that we experience unresolved conflicts, ambivalences, and forbidden wishes and fantasies, all of which emerge from the lasting traces of past memories that become felt in the present.
This anxiety-provoking material, often sexual or violent in nature, becomes repressed into what is known as the unconscious, yet persistently finds means of expression through psychic symptoms that often cause pain and suffering to the individual. These symptoms include addictions of all kinds, eating disorders, obsessive thoughts, inhibitions, and psychosomatic pain.
What prompts someone to seek professional help is a crisis in the equilibrium maintained by the ego’s defensive management of unconscious forces that are struggling to be heard. Perhaps increasing stress and exhaustion builds up to a sudden panic attack, or an impulsive and uncharacteristic action comes out of nowhere, or your dreams have turned into daily nightmares. These experiences may be scary and unwanted, but for therapeutic aims they provide an opportunity for growth, if one is brave enough to speak their truth.
Since we cannot know our unconscious by ourselves, we need to speak to another person, the therapist, who may act as our mirror and interpreter, who is intently listening to everything you say- and don’t say- about yourself. The tool of healing is essentially your speech, which aims at bringing the unconscious to conscious awareness. There is but one rule to follow, which is that of “free association”- you must speak everything that comes to mind, especially things you are afraid or ashamed to talk about, or things you’ve never said to anyone else, or even silly and non-relevant thoughts. Remembering and retelling your dreams is a useful way to gain insight into your unconscious thoughts and ideas.
As you start to speak freely in therapy, you will feel the relief of being able to put fuzzy, overwhelming bodily sensations and feelings into more sturdy thoughts and ideas, granting you some necessary distance as an observer of your experience. At times, a cathartic emotional release of unexpressed emotions can feel liberating, yet this is not all that the work entails. It is a gradual process of integrating your unconscious experiences into who you are, which will always contain parts that feel foreign and outside of you. As you remember and reconstruct the memories that gave rise to defensive strategies that are no longer needed, freed up energies can be channeled towards more fulfilling creative activities.
Psychoanalysis has its limitations. It requires patience and tolerance of the unknown, and even after a great investment of time and resources, does not guarantee happiness or success, nor does it help to adapt you to a “normal” life. It chooses authenticity over conformity. Ultimately, psychoanalysis aims at restoring aliveness and the possibility for satisfaction in your life.