Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis comprises a set of theories and techniques to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behavior. Psychoanalysis is a talk therapy method for treating mental disorders. Established in the early 1890s by Sigmund Freud, it takes into account Darwin's theory of evolution, neurology findings, ethnology reports, and clinical research, including findings of his mentor Josef Breuer. Freud developed and refined the theory and practice of psychoanalysis until his death in 1939. In an encyclopedic article, he identified four foundational beliefs: "the assumption that there are unconscious mental processes, the recognition of the theory of repression and resistance, the appreciation of the importance of sexuality and of the Oedipus complex." Two of Freud's early colleagues, Alfred Adler and Carl Jung, soon developed their own methods, individual and analytical psychology, respectively, which he said were not forms of psychoanalysis. After the author's death, neo-Freudian thinkers like Erich Fromm, Karen Horney and Harry Stack Sullivan created some subfields. Jacques Lacan, who referred to his approach as a retour à Freud (return to Freud), described his metapsychology as a technical elaboration of the three-instance model of the psyche and examined the language-like structure of the unconscious. Psychoanalysis has been a controversial discipline from the outset, although its influence on psychology and psychiatry is undisputed. Evidence suggests psychoanalysis, especially long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy, can be effective for certain disorders, though its overall efficacy remains contested. It may have benefits in the long term over other psychotherapies. Psychoanalytic concepts are also widely used outside the therapeutic field, for example in the interpretation of neurological findings, myths and fairy tales, cultural phenomena, philosophical perspectives such as Freudo-Marxism, and in literary criticism.

Overview

One of Freud's central claims is that the contents of the unconscious largely determine cognition and behavior, describing this as the third insult to mankind. The first was the cosmic discovery by Copernicus that the Earth revolved around the Sun, the second was the biological discovery by Darwin that humans evolved from apes, and the third psychological affront was the discovery by Freud that the ego was not even master of its own home. Freud found that many of the drives are repressed into the unconscious, which the structural model locates in the 'id', as a result of traumatic experiences during childhood. Attempts to integrate them into the conscious perception of the ego triggers resistance. The individual 'wants' to maintain the repression through defense mechanisms—including censorship, internalized fear of punishment or of loss of love—while the affected instincts resist. An inner war rages between the forces of the id, ego, and superego and can manifest as more or less conspicuous mental disorders. Importantly, Freud did not equate the most common behavior with 'health'. "Health can only be described in metapsychological terms" (assessment of each psychic process according to the coordinates of biological drive economy, dynamics, and topology). He discovered that the instinctive impulses are expressed in the symbols of dreams and in the symptomatic detours of neuroticism and Freudian slips. Psychoanalysis was developed in order to clarify the causes of disorders and to restore mental health by enabling the ego to become aware of the id's needs and to find realistic, self-controlled ways to satisfy them. Freud summarized this goal of his therapy as "Wo Es war, soll Ich werden" ("Where id was, there ego shall be").

Oedipus rising

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