Psychoanalysis is often identified with the work of its founder, Sigmund Freud. In fact, since its birth, more than a century ago, there has been a profound evolution of both theoretical concepts and practical applications.
So, What is a psychoanalyst and what does he do? In this Psychology-Online article we are going to try to delve deeper into this area to answer the questions about what a psychoanalyst studies and what their work consists of, in addition to explaining what guidelines the patient who undergoes therapy must follow. psychoanalytic.
What is a psychoanalyst
The psychoanalyst is a psychotherapist which works through precise adjustment options and for both therapeutic and cognitive purposes. Specifically, he is a professional inspired by psychoanalysis of and his successors.
What is psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is the unconscious theory of the human psyche on which the psychotherapeutic practice that began with the work of Sigmund Freud is based. On the one hand, psychoanalytic theory investigates unconscious psychic phenomena.
On the other hand, as a result of psychoanalysis, a discipline known as psychodynamic psychotherapy was born that treats psychopathological phenomena such as l, as well as other types of psychopathologies.
How to be a psychoanalyst
He training To become a psychoanalyst is very long, selective and complex. Furthermore, in parallel with the process to practice as a psychotherapist, it is necessary to follow selection procedures and training guidelines rigorously established by the different national and international psychoanalytic societies.
Within this selection process to be a psychoanalyst, it is expected that the candidate carries out a personal and didactic analysis for several years, in addition to clinical supervision, internships, courses and theoretical-clinical seminars.
Generally, the psychoanalyst practices his own profession as an analyst in his own private study and the patient is asked to respect certain precise rules (settings) without which psychoanalytic work could not begin. We see them below:
- High availability to hold weekly sessions (two to four) and its duration (45-50 minutes).
- Use of the cribeither chaise longuein which the patient lies down while the analyst sits behind him.
- Payment methods They are some functional criteria through which the relational framework in which the analyst-patient relationship will develop is built.
What a psychoanalyst studies
The studies of a psychoanalyst focus on , who has set the goal of theorize the normal development of the individual. Thus the name metapsychology was born, whose formulations aspire to describe the psychic apparatus from three points of view:
- Topical: as a spatial entity where psychic phenomena can be placed.
- Dynamic: in which the forces that oppose or do not oppose the transition from one system to another are “described.”
- Economic: where the amount of energy used in psychic processes is considered.
With the advancement of knowledge in the field and in neighboring fields, such as psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, infant researchattachment theory or social cognitionthe classical theory of psychoanalysis has evolved and changed.
These changes have given life to new schools of thought that go back to the psychoanalytic thread. Among them, Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology stands out, both eminent students of Freud.
What does a psychoanalyst do?
If you are wondering what to talk to the psychoanalyst or what he does, you should know that his main mission is cure certain mental disorders, investigating the unconscious dynamics of the individual. Until the end of the 19th century, these disorders were treated by psychiatrists and neurologists through hospitalizations for re-educational purposes or with the use of .
The Viennese doctor Sigmund Freud, a neurologist and also a user of hypnosis, suggested that at the basis of mental disorders there was a conflict between contrary psychic demands. In the course of his successive theoretical formulations, Freud formulated three hypotheses, one after another, about the possible genesis of the conflict:
- The conflict between the pleasure principle and the reality principle, that is, between the need to satisfy internal pleasure and what is necessary with the real world.
- The conflict between the sexual drive and self-preservation.
- The conflict between the desire for life and the desire for death.
As a therapeutic practice, psychoanalysis places among its main objectives the resolution of this conflict through investigation of the patient’s unconscious. The main methods that a psychoanalyst uses to deal with this research are:
- Analysis of free associations.
- Analysis of failed acts.
- Dream analysis
Thanks to these processes, psychoanalysis allows access the “contents extracted from consciousness” that generate the conflict. Other key concepts, fundamental for an adequate psychoanalytic therapeutic process, are transference, resistance (and defense mechanism in general).
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Petrini, P., Renzi, A., Casadei, A., Mandesem A. (2013). Dictionary of psychoanalysis. With elements of psychodynamic psychiatry and dynamic psychology. Milan: Franco Angeli.