Psychoanalysis: dialogue with the unconscious

Psychoanalysis is a multi-valued concept: it is the largest theory of personality, and a way to study the unconscious, and a method of treating various mental disorders. All this was created by one person — the Austrian doctor Sigmund Freud. He was able to formulate in his theories what other scientists and thinkers only guessed about; began to use techniques in his work with patients that his fellow doctors took with hostility and even ridiculed, but it was these techniques that helped people get rid of mental illness. Thanks to the courage of the spirit, Freud was able to make discoveries that became the basis of psychoanalysis and an important part of modern culture.

founding father

The Austrian physician Sigmund Freud began his private practice as a psychiatrist in 1882. In an effort to help his patients who suffer from mood swings, depression, anxiety, he studies various methods of treating nervous diseases. Working together with the largest French psychiatrist Charcot (Jean-Martin Charcot), he masters the technique of hypnosis. Together with his colleague Jozef Brejer, he develops a method of catharsis — the release of emotions in the course of a patient’s conversation with a doctor. Together with Breuer, Freud writes the book Studies in Hysteria, in which, for the first time in the history of medicine, he states that hysteria is “not a disease of the nerves”, but a personality disorder. Communication with Breuer helped him to come to the discovery of the unconscious, to an understanding of the process of repression of traumatic experiences (we “forget” what we cannot cope with) and childish sexuality, which determines the development of our psyche. As a treatment technique, Freud stopped using hypnosis and began to work with the help of free association (including dream analysis), which became the basis of the method of psychoanalysis.

Free and creative person

Thanks to psychoanalysis, over the past hundred years, many psychotherapeutic directions and theories of personality have arisen: Jungian analysis, individual psychology, individual psychology of Alfred Adler (Alfred Adler), body-oriented psychotherapy by Wilhelm Reich, transactional analysis of Eric Berne (Eric Berne) and many others .

Perhaps that is why psychoanalysis today is often confused with psychotherapy, believing that its main goal is to help a person better adapt to life, become calm, capable of constructive actions and relationships. However, psychoanalysis not only helps the patient to get rid of the symptoms and problems that bother him. First of all, it gives him the opportunity to gain greater inner freedom, to feel the value of personal development and, most importantly, teaches him to conduct a dialogue with his unconscious, which means to understand the hidden motives of his actions, to resolve internal conflicts.

The world inside us is infinite, while the psychoanalytic process is finite in time (but lasts at least four years). Therefore, it is very important that during this time the patient not only work through his main problems, but also feel his mature «I», thanks to which he will be able to continue his inner work after the psychoanalysis is completed.

Work tool»

One of the main «tools» in psychoanalytic work is the personality of the analyst. He must be able to immerse himself in the unconscious of the patient, experience with him his most hidden internal conflicts and tragedies, at the same time analytically comprehending them and accurately understanding what is happening in his soul. That is why the standards of education accepted all over the world are very high. Psychoanalysts must have higher education in the specialty “psychologist” or “psychiatrist” and special postgraduate education, which, in particular, includes experience in personal analysis (at least four years) and two years of work with at least two patients under constant supervision (observation of more than experienced colleague). At the same time, both his analyst and supervisors must be members of the International Psychoanalytic Association.

safe space

The result of psychoanalysis largely depends on the conditions in which meetings with the analyst take place. They are always clearly defined (analysts call these rules «setting»): the patient comes to the same place, at a predetermined time, and does so three to five times a week. The session lasts 45-50 minutes. All missed meetings are paid regardless of the reason for which they were missed. Analysts are confident that such stability and clarity of conditions help the patient feel responsible for the work, develop his internal analytical process, which should not depend on external or internal interference.

During the session, the patient lies on the couch, and this helps him to stop controlling external reality — after all, he cannot follow the reaction of the analyst (he is sitting at his head), but only hears his voice. And there is a feeling that you are talking simultaneously with a real person, with yourself and with the fantasy image of an analyst that you have.

Transference and countertransference

According to the basic rule of psychoanalysis, the patient must say everything that he thinks and feels, everything that comes to his mind, even what is unpleasant, shameful or painful to report (these are free associations). In trying to follow this rule, he begins to experience various feelings for the analyst (this phenomenon is called «transference» in psychoanalysis). The patient projects his unconscious desires, feelings and conflicts onto him and experiences them with renewed vigor. For example, he may be angry with the analyst because he (as it seems to him) is silent for a long time. But as a result of the analysis of these feelings, he discovers that his anger was actually directed at his own mother, who once, in childhood, punished him with silence for any offense. The transfer of former conflict relationships and fantasies from the past to the psychoanalytic office allows you to remember, experience and rethink what was forced out into the unconscious at different stages of life.

But it is equally important for the result of the work that the analyst also catches the emotions that arise in him in response to the patient’s experiences (such reactions are called «countertransference»). This helps him understand even the deepest unconscious experiences of the patient and interpret them, that is, transform the unconscious into the conscious. As a result of psychoanalysis, the patient discovers with surprise that someone can treat him warmly, sincerely help him, believe in him. Ultimately, he will begin to build his life with this new experience.

* Z. Freud «Studies of Hysteria». East European Institute of Psychoanalysis, 2005.