What is psychoanalysis?
Psychoanalysis, developed by the Viennese physician Sigmund Freud, is the study and therapeutic treatment of psychological disorders, the structure and functioning of the psyche based on the unconscious. Psychoanalysis is based on four fundamental principles: the unconscious, suppression, conflict and drive. Thus, the actions of our mind, according to Freud, are the result of a conflict between forces opposed to each other, leading to suppression, i.e. the elimination of painful or shameful experiences by the mind, by establishing the unconscious as a dimension in itself. Next we encounter the unconscious and preconscious consciousness, more precisely: the Id (unconscious, seat of the drives and dominated by the pleasure principle), the Ego (dominated by the reality principle) and the Superego (the seat of the moral and censorious instances of the mind). Therefore, the aim of psychoanalysis is to investigate those psychological contents that, remaining in an unconscious stage, affect the behavior and personality of the subjects, which manifests itself in the form of anxieties, dreams and lapses.
What does it consist of?
Psychoanalytic therapy is carried out on the basis of free association: freely saying what is going on in the mind, even if it may seem nonsense. Thanks to this method, the analyst can bring to light all the reasons that unconsciously determine the patient’s behavior, establishing a connection between the symptom he suffers and the things he says. Once therapy has begun, the patient establishes a special and intimate relationship with the analyst called transference and projects onto the analyst all his feelings of love and hate towards other people, especially in the family environment. It is called positive transference when the patient projects onto the analyst his feelings of love, while it is negative when he projects manifestations of hatred. Through the transference, the analyst who directs the cure, brings out and facilitates the emergence of the unconscious in the form of words, finding a link with the subject’s symptomatology. Subsequently, the analyst, through a neutral attitude of clinical indifference, can realize all those drives censored by the defense mechanisms that cause mental disorders, and helps the person to become aware of them and overcome them. The therapeutic experience of psychoanalysis to overcome neurosis can last even years, with an average of three sessions per week lasting between 45 and 50 minutes.
Why is it done?
Psychoanalytic therapy is aimed at the subject’s awareness of his unconscious processes with the consequent “healing” of the neurotic symptom that derives from them. However, psychoanalysis is not only intended for patients with mental disorders; since it is eminently a powerful means of investigation, the ideal patient will not only become aware of the unconscious mechanisms that have generated the disorder, but will acquire a positive disposition to work on himself/herself