Unlike other therapies, psychoanalysis is not a question-and-answer process, but the first priority of psychoanalysis is for the client to speak and the psychoanalyst to listen carefully to his words so that the client does not even feel the therapist’s presence and can think out loud without self-censorship. slow down and reveal your inner feelings to the therapist.
What is psychoanalysis?
Psychoanalysis is a therapy based on the past that examines each person’s unconscious and conscious with the techniques of interpretation, free association, dream analysis, resistance and transference, and improves the person’s performance in the present by solving past conflicts.
Many painful events and past experiences affect our behavior and decisions without being aware of it, so if we do not become aware of the events that are institutionalized in our subconscious mind, we will be condemned to repeat them. One of the main tasks of the psychoanalyst is to take the person step by step towards awareness and show the psychological pains that are buried in the depths of the mind due to the defense mechanisms and fix them, then what can be improved in the person’s existence to promote it.
The psychoanalyst gradually finds the roots of problems in the depths of human existence and brings the parts of the unconscious that actively interfere in the person’s life to the conscious side so that the person can face himself and his feelings and achieve inner peace.
History of psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud is the founder of the school of psychoanalysis, who with his innovation and creativity added broad and deep foundations to the world of psychology and with the principles he expressed caused a great revolution in the treatment process.
After Freud, classical psychoanalysis underwent many changes, and according to today’s world, where people’s way of thinking and their lives are affected by artificial intelligence and virtual world, modern psychoanalysis was invented.
The basis of psychoanalysis is determinism, because Freudian psychoanalysis is based on the principle that the whole life of rumination is the golden age of childhood, that is, from zero to eight years of age, a large part of a person’s unconscious is formed, and according to the formed unconscious, the person decides and shapes his life. Therefore, psychoanalysis helps to solve the problems of a person in adulthood by untangling childhood disorders.
Application of psychoanalysis
During psychoanalytic therapy sessions, the client discovers the deep layers of his personality, which have been hidden in the depths of disorders for many years. Parenting methods are effective in the formation of a person’s communication patterns, now if a child grows up in a controlling and blaming family and does not have a healthy platform for the formation of behavior patterns, he will constantly repeat the same wrong behavior patterns as an adult. Psychoanalysis helps to break this cycle of mistakes so that the person is not trapped by repeated mistakes and can make correct decisions and have correct communication. Psychoanalysts are like archaeologists; Just as archaeologists have to move millions of tons of soil to reach valuable burials, psychoanalysts have to solve the problems that have been covered and hidden layer by layer in order to reveal the existential burials of humans.
Psychoanalytic techniques
Interpretation: After listening to the words and events that the client tells about his life, the therapist interprets so that the person can understand the root of his thoughts.
Free association: Freud created the free association technique after realizing the defense mechanisms that caused the therapists not to express all their words and events and speak with self-censorship. In free association, every time the client speaks, parts of his problems are revealed, and the therapist connects these problems and finds the problems in the person’s life, in other words, the therapist finds the person’s unconscious codings and then that coding It changes the wrong ones.
Dream analysis: Freud believed that dreams are a highway to the unconscious, so by interpreting dreams, one can find out a person’s suppressed feelings, desires and desires. Dreams are symbols of a person’s unconscious conflicts that psychoanalysts solve during psychotherapy sessions and help to optimize life.
Resistance: It is always difficult to face unconscious conflicts, so many therapists try to deny to avoid the confrontation and even as a sign of protest, they may show their anger by being disorderly in the meetings. During the treatment process, skilled psychoanalysts break down the psychological resistance of the patients and then untie the unconscious conflicts.
Resistance: It is always difficult to face unconscious conflicts, so many therapists try to deny to avoid the confrontation and even as a sign of protest, they may show their anger by being disorderly in the meetings. During the treatment process, skilled psychoanalysts break down the psychological resistance of the patients and then untie the unconscious conflicts.
Suggested article: Cognitive-behavioral approach
The difference between psychoanalysis and cognitive therapy
Contrary to the general belief that psychoanalysis is the only one that deals with the root of problems, cognitive therapy and other treatments also investigate the root of problems, but the point is that the investigation of the root of problems is different in each treatment approach.
In cognitive therapy, the root of the problems are the beliefs and way of thinking of the person, but in psychoanalysis, the root of the problems is in the childhood and past of the person.
The work direction of the psychoanalyst refers to the person’s past in such a way that they examine the developmental factors and childhood of the person in detail and find the defects step by step and then solve them.