Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
(A Relational Approach to Healing)

Over the years, as I worked with individuals who were dealing with relationship and career issues, or emotional difficulties such as depression or anxiety, I found that when we looked into the past, trauma often existed. Perhaps that person grew up in an alcoholic family; perhaps the patient's mother had become ill when the patient was very young. Whatever the situation, it was clear that there was often an early lack of a positive attachment between the mother and the individual.

I therefore felt that I wanted more training in psychoanalysis, which emphasizes the relationship between the analyst and the person being analyzed, called the analysand. Through the use of free association the analysand is able to explore feelings and phantasies in great depth and to uncover early childhood disturbances. The relationship with the analyst provides a new environment in which an understanding of oneself allows the analysand to break out of old patterns and develop new ones.

Just as the mother/infant relationship is crucial in shaping an individual’s psychic health, in the same way the analyst/analysand relationship facilitates the individual’s growth. For this reason I define psychoanalysis as a relational approach towards healing.

Whether the analysand uses the couch (psychoanalysis) or sits face-to-face (psychoanalytic psychotherapy), I have found that a psychoanalytic approach reveals emotions, fears and confusions that have been hidden and therefore cause difficulty in the analysand’s life. Together, my analysand and I are able to discover the roots of the difficulty, whether manifesting as chronic pain or addiction, depression or anxiety. Psychoanalysis has grown considerably since its beginnings with Freud, and new understandings of how the self develops in a healthy way and what can interrupt this healthy process to cause pain—whether physical or emotional—have made psychoanalysis a very powerful tool for growth.

A psychoanalytic approach simply means dealing not with present day symptoms but with the earlier emotional states that led to these difficulties. This is distinct from a supportive psychotherapy which deals more with educating. A psychoanalytic approach allows the individual to understand him or herself and therefore be able to work through uncovering and experiencing unprocessed pain. Therefore, whenever I use the word therapy, I am referring to a psychoanalytic psychotherapy.