WHAT IS A PSYCHOANALYST?

Graduate Psychoanalysts are licensed mental health professionals who have completed four to five years of additional post-graduate course-work, obtained clinical supervision from qualified psychoanalysts on multiple training cases while undergoing his or her own personal analysis. Immersion in such a program deepens one's awareness and respect for the human psyche, and enriches one's understanding of the influence of both the conscious as well as unconscious mind.

Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Courtesy of Division 39 (Division of Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association:

“ Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy are unique forms of intensive psychotherapy that foster personal development and liberation from unsatisfying or painful patterns of living. In pursuit of those goals, the individual in a psychoanalytically informed therapy and the therapist work together in close collaboration. They pay careful attention to the interactions of personal and interpersonal experience, of past and present, of body and mind, of fantasy and reality. It is expected that such an in-depth exploration can set in motion a process of personal transformation.

People seek psychoanalytically informed treatment for many reasons. Some want help with specific emotional problems like depression, anxiety, or stress or are seeking to come to terms with a painful or traumatic personal history. Others may feel stuck in distressing patterns that prevent them from feeling satisfied, from feeling connected with others, or from finding meaning in their lives. Many people simply desire a deeper self-understanding or greater creativity in their personal lives.

The process of psychoanalysis depends on the establishment of a safe, confidential, and collaborative therapeutic relationship.” The frequency of sessions is one of the differences between psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. In therapy one can expect to meet once to twice weekly, whereas psychoanalysis is often three to five times a week. “Frequent sessions allows the patient’s dilemmas to come to life in the intricacies of the psychoanalytic relationship.

Patient and therapist work together to understand the meaning of the patient’s emotional reactions, thoughts, memories, fantasies, dreams, images, and sensations in an effort to alleviate personal suffering and to expand the capacity for work, love, and creativity.

Many individuals find that the use of an analytic couch allows them to speak more freely about their most personal concerns and to access unconscious experience. For others, the experience of a face-to-face dialogue seems essential to the unfolding of the therapeutic process.

The psychoanalytic process weaves a complex tapestry in which therapist and patient can explore the rich and intricate texture of human relationship. This process can be expected to unfold over a considerable period of time. A decision to enter into a psychoanalytically informed treatment represents a mutual agreement between patient and therapist. Decisions about the frequency of sessions needed to sustain the process are reached jointly.

….psychoanalytic tradition and technique are valuable resources for understanding the psychological processes of personal development and social interaction. Contemporary psychoanalysis draws on a vast body of knowledge–both within psychoanalysis and across disciplines–to understand their patients compassionately and to respond effectively to the broader communities in which they live and work.

Psychoanalysis is also engaged in dialogue with other disciplines like science, history, philosophy, gender studies, visual arts, literature, poetry, music, and film. As an evolving domain in its own right, psychoanalysis continues actively to address a wide range of current issues, such as changing social structures, individual alienation, identity and diversity, political violence, and emerging cultural realities. In addition, there has been a long tradition of reciprocal influence between psychoanalysis and psychological research, especially in the areas of human development, cognitive science, and social psychology.”

For more information about the division of psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association please call (602) 212-0511. For more information about psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy visit our website at www.division39.org. The Division thanks Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis for their permission to reproduce some of the material presented in this brochure.