Psychoanalysis is the most enduring and influential theory in explaining human behaviour and the effective treatment of psychological disorders. Founded by Sigmund Freud at the close of the 19th century and the opening of the 20th century, psychoanalysis introduced new concepts. These concepts included the unconscious mind, defence mechanisms, and the impact of life experiences on personality and mental health.
Contemporary therapies present themselves in the form of cognitive-behavioral therapy and humanistic therapies, but psychoanalysis is a very vital part of modern therapy too. This paper reports on the history of development, core principles, and contemporary practice of psychoanalysis. It includes the integration of psychoanalytic thought into modern psychotherapy theories. Also, It explores the applicability of psychoanalysis in understanding mental health problems. It also highlights the changes needed based on contemporary practices, their limitations, and future recommendations.
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Historical Background
Psychoanalysis emerged as a response to a time when speculative philosophy dominated psychological therapy, and progress had only just advanced through a few simple techniques like hypnosis. Freud started first by writing his work on the dynamic unconscious, where human behaviour issues from unconscious motives and conflicts, as shown in 1915, where he derived the therapeutics of free association and dream interpretation that will express the unconsciousness.
Freud’s theories on psychosexual development and repressed memories in adult behaviour shaped the explanation of mental illness. Later contributors to the movement included Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Melanie Klein, among others. The ideas were gaining momentum; therefore, more than one school of thought ensued. For instance, Jung initiated the theory of archetypes and the collective unconscious, while Klein emphasized the importance of object relations theory. Klein placed significant stress on the role of early relationships in shaping personality (Klein, 1946).
Psychoanalysis could, therefore, change with the times and touch every sphere of psychology and psychotherapy. Even as behaviourism came into its own and then later, when the time came, cognitive approaches to the mind dominated, psychoanalysis was not redundant. Instead, psychoanalysis was offering new and vital insights into the unconscious and emotional complexities of human life, which no other discipline could.
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Principles of Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis rests on some fundamental principles:
- Psychic Determinism: Psychic activity doesn’t occur at random; there has to be a reason in the unconscious.
- The Unconscious Mind: Freud argued that the unconscious mind is one of the dominant sources of ideas, emotions, and actions. These are suppressed memories, urges, and conflict conveyed through dreams, lapses in speech, and other symbolic channels (Freud, 1915).
- Childhood Experience: Psychoanalysis considers that experience in childhood is the most important one for personality and mental health. For instance, Freud’s psychosexual stages of development and Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages depict the same principle.
- Defence Mechanism: Anna Freud (1936) continued in her father’s work to add to the identification of defence mechanisms as repression, denial, and projection among others that serve to act as a defence for the individual against anxiety but also simultaneously promote psychic discomfort.
- Transference and Countertransference: It is when the patient transfers feelings they have for someone else significant person to the therapist. The process by which the therapist emotionally reacts toward the client. These are included in the relation dynamic in psychotherapy as well (Gelso & Hayes, 2007).
Read More: Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development
Incorporation of Psychoanalysis into Modern Therapy
It can be said that traditional psychoanalysis is all about long sessions, and most of its basic principles have become a part of modern therapeutic use. STPT brings together psychoanalytic therapy techniques into a more definite and time-bound framework that makes it available to the modern client, according to Leichsenring & Klein, 2014. Modern practitioners incorporate psychoanalytic theory into the integration of other approaches as well.
Attachment-based treatment, based on the theory of object relations, determines whether the experiences made at a point in life could be related to effects on adult life and emotional status (Fonagy & Allison, 2014). Trauma-focused treatments, such as somatic experiencing and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, are much reliant on the psychoanalytic theory of repression and unconscious processing (van der Kolk, 2015).
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Contributions to the Knowledge of Mental Health
Psychoanalysis has changed the way people think generally and about mental health. Defense Mechanisms and Coping: Anna Freud’s work on defence mechanisms, for instance, remains relevant to this day in terms of how individuals react to stress and trauma. Ideas such as “repression and denial” are brought up in many therapy circles, such as CBT and DBT (Shedler, 2010).
Personality Disorders: It was, and remains, the approach of choice to understand personality disorders and their treatment, especially borderline and narcissistic personality disorders. Such conditions usually are complicated by unconscious dynamics like splitting and idealization, and they are quite responsive to psychoanalytic techniques (Luborsky et al., 1997).
The Therapeutic Relationship: Psychoanalysis lays much importance on transference and countertransference in the therapeutic context as forming the centre of the treatment process. It is here that insight into the patient’s relational pattern and unresolved conflict can be grasped for ultimate growth or healing (Gelso & Hayes, 2007).
Much of trauma therapy borrowed principles from psychoanalysis. Early work by Freud and Josef Breuer on hysteria expanded the understanding of how trauma is connected to the unconscious mind (Freud & Breuer, 1895). Many cases can apply well to unrepressed memories of psychodynamics. Today, even psychodynamic theories have their possible place in applying themselves to unrepressed memories about emotions with the experienced traumas of their clients.
Even that thought, that integration of somatic modalities within psychoanalytic experience in terms of discussion regarding the mind and the body has generated many more modifications in the areas of organismic expressions of the traumas within the minds of the psychodynamic approaches of those suffering (Ogden & Fisher, 2015). Psychoanalysis has, over time, evolved to meet every need of modern psychotherapy.
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- Time-Limited Models: These models focus on issues time-bound and related to short-term psychoanalytic therapy. Hence it is very easy as well as low-priced (Leichsenring & Klein, 2014).
- Cross-Cultural Adaptations: As time goes on, different psychoanalysts have been adapting the peculiar cultural context of the different diverse groups being helped in their approach so that treatment becomes sensitive and appropriate to culture (Fonagy & Allison, 2014).
- Teletherapy: In recent times, the birth of teletherapy indicates that psychoanalytic techniques are now accessible to clients who live in remote locations, who are disabled or otherwise, thus allowing for a continuity of treatment during this era of digital communication.
Psychoanalysis has faced significant criticism for being time-consuming, expensive, and impossible to empirically confirm. Its nature of strictly relying on subjective interpretations also questions the scientific basis behind it. Feminism has even seen Freud’s theory as biased on gender, whereas other cultural critiques believe it’s too Euro-centric (Shedler, 2010).
Although limited, some contemporary research-based evidence does point to the efficacy of psychodynamic therapy in addressing depression, anxiety disorder, and personality disorders (Shedler, 2010; Leichsenring & Klein, 2014). Efforts to assimilate psychoanalytic principles with evidence-based practices add to its credence.
Read More: The Approach Of Cognitive Psychology And Its Role In Mental Health
The Future of Psychoanalysis
The theory of psychoanalysis is advanced through neuroscience and cognitive psychology. It integrates the latest findings on brain plasticity and emotional processing into the psychoanalytic ideas regarding the unconscious and mechanisms of defence (Solms, 2018). Other innovations in science can relate psychoanalysis to empirical facts, thereby repositioning its role in contemporary practice.
Read more: Sigmund Freud and His Contributions in Psychology
Conclusion
Psychoanalysis is a highly relevant component in modern therapy because it gives outstanding insights into the psyche of humans and its dynamics. Adaptability and incorporation into modern therapeutic models demonstrate how it is as relevant today as it can ever be. Its value in treatment endures because it draws a deep understanding of psychological distress from the unconscious. This process enhances awareness and provides greater knowledge of the mind.
References +
Fonagy, P., & Allison, E. (2014). The role of mentalizing and epistemic trust in the therapeutic relationship. Psychotherapy, 51(3), 372–380. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036505
Freud, S. (1915). The unconscious. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 14, pp. 159–215).
Freud, S., & Breuer, J. (1895). Studies on hysteria. Penguin Books.
Gelso, C. J., & Hayes, J. A. (2007). Countertransference and the therapist’s inner experience: Perils and possibilities. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Klein, M. (1946). Notes on some schizoid mechanisms. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 27, 99–110.
Leichsenring, F., & Klein, S. (2014). Evidence for psychodynamic psychotherapy in specific mental disorders: A systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 44(8), 1515–1527. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291713001743
Ogden, P., & Fisher, J. (2015). Sensorimotor psychotherapy: Interventions for trauma and attachment. W.W. Norton & Company.
Shedler, J. (2010). The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 65(2), 98–109. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018378
Solms, M. (2018). The scientific standing of psychoanalysis. Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 46(3), 265–289. https://doi.org/10.1521/pdps.2018.46.3.265
van der Kolk, B. A. (2015). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin Books.
