SIGMUND FREUD Spouse/Ex-: 

Martha Bernays (M. 1886-1939)

Father: Jacob Freud

Mother: Amalia Freud

Children: Anna, Ernst, Jean-Martin, Mathilde,

Oliver, Sophie

Religion: Jewish Galician

Died On: September 23, 1939

Birthday:  Place Of Death: London

May 6, 1856
Personality: ISTJ
Nationality: Austrian
Cause Of Death: Drug Overdose
Died At Age: 83
Education: University Of Vienna
Born In: Príbor
Awards: 1930 - Goethe Prize For His
Famous As: Neurologist, Psychiatrist Contributions To Psychology And To German
Literary Culture

 Regarded as one of the ‘most important thinkers of the last century’, Sigmund Freud is
considered the father of ‘psychoanalysis’, who revolutionized the study of dreams with his
magnum opus, ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’.
 His theories about the mind and the mysteries locked within, transformed the world of
psychology and the way people looked at the ‘complex-energy system’, known as the ‘brain’.
 He refined the concepts of the unconscious state, juvenile sexuality and subjugation, and also
proposed a three-way theory pertaining to the structure of the mind.
 His works related to the treatment of human actions and dreams have been considered
paramount in the world of science and proved to be extremely fruitful in the field of psychology.

A freethinker, an ambitious rebel and an atheist, Freud’s outlook is a result of his Jewish upbringing, his
love for Shakespeare’s narratives and his solitary life. Although there have been countless critics who
disowned Freud’s work for being highly sexist and unrealistic, there were many positive remarks about
his discoveries and some even compared his works to those of Aquinas and Plato.

Early Years & Education

 Sigmund Schlomo Freud was the first of the eight children born to Jewish Galician parents in
Pribor, a small town in the Czech Republic. The family was not very well-off and his initial years
were a struggle. Due to the Panic of 1857—a financial crisis trigerred in the U.S.— his father lost
his business and the family moved to Vienna.
  In 1865, he was enrolled to the ‘Leopoldstadter Kommunal-Realgymnasium’, a renowned school
in the region. He proved his mettle as an outstanding student and graduated from high school,
in 1873.

 As a young boy, he was passionate about literature and was proficient in a number of languages
such as German, French, Italian, Hebrew, Greek and Latin. He was also an avid reader of
Shakespeare’s works, whose works apparently, helped him understand human psychology.

 He studied at the University of Vienna, where he joined the medical faculty and graduated with
an MD in 1881. He enjoyed science but found the idea of practicing medicine unexciting. He
wanted to pursue neurophysiological research but could not, owing to financial constraints.

Career

 In October 1885, he travelled to Paris on a fellowship to study with Jean-Martin Charcot, a

prominent neurologist. He was inspired by his practice of medical psychopathology, which made
him realize that neurology was not to his taste and that he was made for something bigger and
more exciting.
 He started his private practice in 1886 and adopted the use of ‘hypnosis’ for his clinical work,
inspired by his friend and collaborator, Josef Breuer. The treatment of one particular patient,
‘Anna O’, proved to be transformative to Freud’s clinical career.
 He inferred that a patient could be cured of psychological problems while being engaged in an
uninhibited discourse about his/her traumatic experiences in a hypnotized state, the practice
which he later called ‘free association’.
 In addition to this practice, he also discovered that a patient’s dreams could be analyzed and the
psychic repression of an individual could also be studied and cured. By 1896, he carried out
extensive research on a new subject, which he coined as ‘psychoanalysis’.
 He also concluded that repressed childhood memories of sexual molestation or assault were
prerequisites to understand a certain psychological condition called ‘neuroses’. In order to
further his research on the same, he developed the ‘seduction theory’, which threw light on
how horrifying childhood memories related to sexual abuse or other gruesome physical
encounters can become causative factors for the afore mentioned condition.
 He was appointed as the Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Vienna in 1902, a
position he held till the outbreak of World War II.
 He delivered lectures on his newly-formulated theories to small audiences at the lecture hall at
the university and his works generated considerable amount of interest among a small group of
Viennese physicians.
 Some of them soon began to visit his apartment every Wednesday and indulged in discussions
related to neuropathy and psychology; this group eventually came to be known as the
‘Wednesday Psychological Society’, marking the beginning of his worldwide psychoanalytical
movement.
The International Psychoanalytical Congress

 By 1906, the members of the ‘Wednesday Psychological Society’ grew manifold and on April 27,
1908, they had their first official international meeting called ‘The International Psychoanalytical
Congress’ at Hotel Bristol, Salzburg. Over 40 members were present at this conference and news
of Freud’s psychoanalytical developments began to spread, so much so that, it attracted a wide
audience even from across the Atlantic.
 He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Clark University in Massachusetts, which attracted
widespread media attention and the interest of one prominent personality, James Jackson
Putnam, a renowned American psychiatrist.
 After a couple of discussions with Freud, Putnam was convinced that his work represented a
significant breakthrough in the world of psychology in the United States.
 As a result of his mass popularity, when the ‘American Psychoanalytical Society’ was founded in
1911, he was elected as its president. However, after fallout with a couple of members of the
‘American Psychoanalytical Society’, he initiated the formation of a new psychoanalytical group
in 1912.
 The same year he published a paper entitled, ‘The History of the Psychoanalytical Movement’,
which shed light on the evolution of the psychoanalytical movement.

 In 1913, the ‘London Psychoanalytical Society’ was established by Ernest Jones, one of Freud’s
devoted followers. The name of the association was changed to the ‘British Psychoanalytical
Society’ in 1919, with Jones as its President; a position he held till 1944.

 Freud attended his last ‘International Psychoanalytical Congress’ meeting in 1922, in Berlin. By
then a dozen of institutes were established by his followers around the world in Russia,
Germany, France, America, Canada, Switzerland and Poland etc.

Later Life & Nazi Troubles

 After the end of World War I, he spent less time in clinical research and focused on the
application of his models in the fields of history, literature and anthropology.

 In 1923, the ‘The Ego and the Id’ was published, which suggested a new fundamental model of
the human mind distributed into three divisions—the ‘id’, the ‘ego’ and the ‘superego’.

 After Adolf Hitler was appointed as Chancellor of Germany in 1933, many of Freud’s publications
were burned and destroyed, but he continued to remain optimistic throughout the impending
Nazi threat.

 Ernest Jones, who was the-then president of the ‘International Psychoanalytical Movement’,
persuaded Freud to seek Exile in Britain, to which Freud agreed. His departure however, was a
long and painful process, mired by the Nazis.

 His passport was confiscated, but with the support of his followers, he escaped the talons of
Nazi brutality and left Vienna for London, with his wife and his daughter, Anna.
Theories & Perspectives

 Early in his career, he became greatly influenced by the works of his Viennese friend, Josef
Breuer, with whose assistance he discovered that when a hysterical patient was asked to talk
uninhibitedly about a certain trauma or pain, the symptoms of hysteria would eventually abate.
 He postulated that neuroses had its origins deeply embedded in a person’s conscience and that
one could rid himself of neurotic symptoms if asked to recall the experiences candidly. This gave
birth to the theory of ‘psychoanalysis’ following the successful treatment of a patient, ‘Anna O’.
 He also proposed that unconscious memories, such as those pertaining to physical or sexual
abuse could result in ‘obsessional neuroses’. He used a number of ‘pressure techniques’ and
other clinical procedures to trace back the memories of his patients’ experiences, in order to
cure them.
 The theory of the ‘unconscious’ was crucial to Freud’s interpretation of the mind. He argued
that the concept of the ‘unconscious’ was based on the theory of ‘repression’.
 He postulated an ‘unconscious mind’ cycle, which was based on the investigation of people with
traumatic experience. It also revealed that behavior of patients could not be elucidated without
reference to ideas or thoughts of which they had no cognizance.
 He explained his ideas of the ‘unconscious’ further in two publications; ‘The Interpretation of
Dreams’ and ‘Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious’, published in 1899 and 1905,
respectively.

 His perspectives on women stirred unexpected controversy during his lifetime and continue to
evoke considerable debate even today. He was strongly against women’s emancipation
movement and believed that lives of women were predominantly controlled by their sexual or
reproductive functions.

 He elaborated a little on his views with girls’ psychosexual development, where he suggested
that girls, around the ages 3-5, begin to detach emotionally from their mothers and instead,
devote more time and attention towards their fathers, in what he called the ‘phallic stage’. He
was also criticized for his views on describing women as inferior to men.

Major Works

 ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’, published on November 4, 1899, was one of Freud’s major
works which introduced the subject of the ‘unconscious’, with respect to the analysis of dreams.
Although the initial print runs for the book was very low, it later went on to become one of the
most widely read books and seven more editions of the same were published later. The original
text, written in German, was later translated to English and re-published in 1913.

 ‘The Psychopathology of Everyday Life’ was published in 1901 and is regarded as one of his
significant works, because it laid the basis for one of his most important theories,
‘psychoanalysis’. The book went on to become one of the greatest scientific classics of the 20th
century and was published in English, in 2003. To date, the publication is considered one of his
greatest works and is often referred to by modern-day psychoanalysts.
  His paper, ‘The Ego and the Id’ outlined the theories of the ‘psychodynamics’ of the id, ego, and
the super-ego. This three-way account of the human mind furthered the development of
psychoanalysis and was published on April 24, 1923. Considered one of his most influential
works, ‘The Ego and the Id’ laid the ground for all of his future works and ideas.

Awards & Achievements

 He was awarded the Goethe Prize in 1930 for his contributions to psychology and German
literary culture.
 He was made the honorary Foreign Member of the British Royal Society of Medicine in 1935.

Personal Life & Legacy

 He married Martha Bernays in 1886 and the couple had six children. Anna, one of his daughters,
went on to become one of his greatest supporters who helped him carry out his research in his
later years. She also became a prominent psychologist, following her father’s footsteps.
 He discovered that he had cancer of the jaw in 1923, which is believed to have been caused by
his ‘love for cigars’. He had to endure 33 painful surgeries in an attempt to remove the cancer.
 He was an early user of cocaine and believed that it abated mental and physical problems. He
frequently suffered from bouts of depression, migraine and nasal inflammation which he
combatted by consuming cocaine.
 He passed away in London, after being administered doses of morphine thus putting an end to
his pain and suffering. This was given to him as a result of the overgrowth of the cancer in his
mouth, which was declared inoperable after 33 surgeries. Three days after his death, his body
was cremated. His funeral was attended by a huge mass of followers and fellow-psychoanalysts.
 His works greatly influenced 20th century studies related to philosophy, science and literature.
His famous psychoanalytical system dominated the field of psychotherapy in the early 20th
century and continues to do so even today. His interpretation of dreams, ‘ego psychology’ and
the study of linguistics, laid the foundation for modern psychoanalytical study and research.
 Several experiments were carried out on Freud’s theories and his ideas were interpreted as both
radical and ‘forward by 50 years or more’ by modern-day scientists.
 The decline in his popularity was due to the feminist uprising of the 50s. His works were
condemned by early feminist authors like Betty Friedan, who stated that most of Freud’s works
asserted male dominance and female inferiority.
 Today, in his honor, a number of awards such as the ‘International Sigmund Freud Award for
Psychotherapy of the City of Vienna’ and ‘The Sigmund Freud Award’ are given to worthy
individuals for their contribution to psychology, literature and science.

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/sigmund-freud-425.php
What is Psychoanalysis? A Definition and History of Psychoanalytic Theory

Psychoanalysis is a type of therapy that aims to release pent-up or repressed emotions and memories to
lead the client to catharsis, or healing (McLeod, 2014). In other words, the goal of psychoanalysis is to
bring that which is at the unconscious or subconscious level up to consciousness.

This goal is accomplished through talking to another person about the big questions, the things that
matter, and diving into the complexities that lie beneath the simple-seeming surface.

The Founder of Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud and His Concepts

Models of the Mind

Perhaps the most impactful idea put forth by Freud was his model of the human mind. His model divides
the mind into three layers, or regions:

1. Conscious: this is where our current thoughts, feelings, and focus live.

2. Preconscious (sometimes called the subconscious): this is the home of everything we can recall
or retrieve from our memory.

3. Unconscious: at the deepest level resides a repository of the processes that drive our behavior,
including primitive and instinctual desires (McLeod, 2013).

Later, Freud came up with a more sophisticated and structured model of the mind, one that can coexist
with his original ideas about consciousness and unconsciousness. In this model, there are three
metaphorical parts to the mind:

1. Id: the id operates entirely at an unconscious level and focuses solely on basic, instinctual drives
and desires. According to Freud, two biological instincts make up the id:
a. Eros, or the instinct to survive that drives us to engage in life-sustaining activities.
b. Thanatos, or the death instinct that drives destructive, aggressive, and violent behavior.

2. Ego: the ego acts as both a conduit for and a check on the id, working to meet the id’s needs in a
socially appropriate way. It is the most tied to reality and begins developing in infancy.

3. Superego: the superego is the portion of the mind in which morality and higher principles
reside, encouraging us to act in socially and morally acceptable ways (McLeod, 2013).

 
Defense Mechanisms

Freud believed these three pieces of the mind are in constant conflict, as the primary goal is different for
each piece. Sometimes, when the conflict is too much for a person to handle, his or her ego may engage
in one or many defense mechanisms to protect the individual.

These defense mechanisms include:

 Repression: unconscious mechanism in which the ego pushes disturbing or threatening

thoughts out of consciousness.

 Denial: the ego blocks upsetting or overwhelming experiences from awareness, causing the
individual to refuse to acknowledge or believe what is happening.

 Projection: the ego’s attempt to solve discomfort by attributing the individual’s unacceptable
thoughts, feelings, and motives to another person.

 Displacement: a mechanism by which the individual can satisfy an impulse by acting on a

substitute object or person in a socially unacceptable way (e.g., releasing frustration directed
toward your boss on your spouse instead).

 Regression: a defense mechanism in which the individual moves backward in development in

order to cope with stress (e.g., an overwhelmed adult acting like a child).

 Sublimation: similar to displacement, this defense mechanism involves satisfying an impulse by

acting on a substitute, but in a socially acceptable way (e.g., channeling energy into work or a
constructive hobby; McLeod, 2013).

The 5 Psychosexual Stages of Development

Finally, one of the most enduring concepts associated with Freud is his psychosexual stages. Freud
proposed that children develop in five distinct stages, each focused on a different source of pleasure:

1. First Stage: Oral – the child seeks pleasure from the mouth (e.g., sucking).

2. Second Stage: Anal – the child seeks pleasure from the anus (e.g., withholding and expelling
feces).

3. Third Stage: Phallic – the child seeks pleasure from the penis or clitoris (e.g., masturbation).

4. Fourth Stage: Latent – the child has little or no sexual motivation.

5. Fifth Stage: Genital – the child seeks pleasure from the penis or vagina (e.g., sexual intercourse;
McLeod, 2013).

 
Freud hypothesized that an individual must successfully complete each stage to become a
psychologically healthy adult with a fully formed ego and superego; otherwise, individuals may become
stuck or “fixated” in a particular stage, causing emotional and behavioral problems in adulthood
(McLeod, 2013).

The Interpretation of Dreams

Another well-known concept from Freud was his belief in the significance of dreams. He believed that
analyzing one’s dreams can give valuable insight into the unconscious mind.

In 1900, Freud published the book The Interpretation of Dreams, in which he outlined his hypothesis
that the primary purpose of dreams was to provide the individual with wish fulfillment, allowing him or
her to work through some of their repressed issues in a situation free from consciousness and reality’s
constraints (Sigmund Freud Biography, n.d.).

In this book, he also distinguished between the manifest content (the actual dream) and the latent
content (the true or hidden meaning behind the dream). The purpose of dreams is to translate
forbidden wishes and taboo desires into a non-threatening form through condensation (the joining of
two or more ideas), displacement (transformation of the person or object we are concerned about into
something or someone else), and secondary elaboration (the unconscious process of turning the wish
fulfillment images or events into a logical narrative; McLeod, 2013).

Freud’s ideas about dreams were game-changing; before him, dreams were considered insignificant and
insensible ramblings of the mind at rest. His book provoked a new level of interest in dreams, an interest
that continues to this day.

Jungian Psychology: Carl Jung

Freud’s work was continued, although in altered form, by his student Carl Jung. His particular brand of
psychology is known as analytical psychology and formed the basis for much of today’s theories and
concepts in psychology.

Jung and Freud shared an interest in the unconscious and worked together in their early days, but a few
key disagreements ended their partnership and allowed Jung to fully devote his attention to his new
psychoanalytic theory.

The three main differences between Freudian psychology and Jungian, or analytical, psychology are
related to:

1. Nature and Purpose of the Libido: Jung saw it as a general source of psychic energy that
motivated a wide range of human behaviors, from sex to spirituality to creativity, while Freud
saw it as a psychic energy that drives only sexual gratification.

2. Nature of the Unconscious: while Freud viewed the unconscious as a storehouse for the
individual’s socially unacceptable repressed desires, Jung believed it was more of a storehouse
for the individual’s repressed memories and what he called the collective or transpersonal
 unconscious (a level of unconscious shared with other humans that is made up of latent
memories from our ancestors).

3. Causes of Behavior: Freud saw our behavior as caused solely by past experiences, most notably
those from childhood, while Jung believed our future aspirations have a significant impact on
our behavior as well (McLeod, 2014).

Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Jacques Lacan

In the mid to late 1900s, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan called for a return to Freud’s work, but
with a renewed focus on the unconscious and greater attention paid to language. Lacan drew heavily
from his knowledge of linguistics, and believed that language was a much more important piece of the
developmental puzzle than Freud assumed.

There are three key concepts of Lacanian psychoanalysis that set it apart from Freud’s original talk
therapy:

1. The Real

2. Symbolic Order

3. Mirror Stage

The Real

While Freud focused on the symbolic, particularly in dreams, as indicative of a person’s unconscious
mind, Lacan theorized that “the real” is actually the deeper, most foundational level of the human mind.
According to Lacan, we exist in the real but experience anxiety because we cannot control it. Unlike the
symbolic, which Freud proposed could be accessed through psychoanalysis, the real cannot be accessed;
that which cannot be integrated into the symbolic order is put in the real. Once we learn and
understand language, we are severed completely from the real. It is described as the state of nature, in
which there exists nothing but need—need for food, sex, safety, etc. (The Real, 2002).

Symbolic Order

Lacan’s symbolic order is one of three orders that concepts, ideas, thoughts, and feelings can be placed
into. Our desires and emotions live in the symbolic order, and this is where they are interpreted (if they
can be interpreted). Concepts like death and absence may be integrated into the symbolic order
because we have at least some sense of understanding of them, but they may not be interpreted fully.
Once we learn language, we move from the real to the symbolic order and are unable to move back to
the real. The real and the symbolic are two of the three orders that live in tension with one another, the
third being the imaginary order (Symbolic Order, 2002).

Mirror Stage
Lacan proposed that there is an important stage of development not covered by Freud called the
“mirror stage.” This aptly named stage is initiated when infants look into a mirror at their own image.
Most infants become fascinated with the image they see, and may even try to interact with it, but
eventually, they realize that the image they are seeing is of themselves. Once they realize this key fact,
they incorporate what they see into their sense of “I” or sense of self. At this young stage, the image
they see may not correspond to their inner understanding of their physical self, in which case the image
becomes an ideal that they strive for as they develop (Hewitson, 2010).

The Approach: Psychoanalytic Perspective

In the psychoanalytic approach, the focus is on the unconscious mind rather than the conscious mind. It
is built on the foundational idea that your behavior is determined by the experiences from your past
that are lodged in your unconscious mind, where you are not aware of them. While the focus on sex has
lessened over the decades since psychoanalysis was founded, there is still a big emphasis on one’s early
childhood experiences (Psychoanalytic Perspective, n.d.).

Methods and Techniques

There are many methods and techniques that a psychoanalyst may use, but there are four basic
components that make up today’s psychoanalysis:

1. Interpretation

2. Transference analysis

3. Technical neutrality

4. Countertransference analysis

Interpretation

Interpretation is the verbal communication between analyst and client (or patient), in which the analyst
discusses their hypotheses of the client’s unconscious conflicts. Generally the analyst will help the client
see the defensive mechanism they are using, then the context of the defensive mechanism, or the
impulsive relationship against which the mechanism was developed, and finally the client’s motivation
for this mechanism (Kernberg, 2016).

There are three classifications of interpretation:

1. Clarification, in which the analyst attempts to clarify what is going on in the patient’s
consciousness.

2. Confrontation, which is bringing nonverbal aspects of the client’s behavior into the his or her
awareness.
 3. Interpretation proper, which refers to the analyst’s proposed hypothesis of the unconscious
meaning that relates all the aspects of the client’s communication with one another (Kernberg,
2016).

Transference Analysis

Transference is the term for the unconscious repetition in the “here and now” of conflicts from the
client’s past. Transference analysis refers to “the systematic analysis of the transference implications of
the patient’s total verbal and nonverbal manifestations in the hours as well as the c patient’s direct and
implicit communicative efforts to influence the analyst in a certain direction…” (Kernberg, 2016). This
analysis of the patient’s transference is an essential component of psychoanalysis and is the main driver
of change in treatment.

In transference analysis, the analyst takes note of all communication, both verbal and nonverbal, the
client engages in and puts together a theory on what led to the defensive mechanisms he or she
displays, which form the basis for any attempts to change the behavior or character of the client.

Technical Neutrality

Another vital piece of psychoanalysis is what is known as technical neutrality, or the commitment of the
analyst to remain neutral and avoid taking sides in the client’s internal conflicts; the analyst strives to
remain at an equal distance from the client’s id, ego, and superego, and from the client’s external
reality. Additionally, technical neutrality demands that the analyst refrains from imposing his or her
value systems upon the client (Kernberg, 2016).

Technical neutrality is sometimes considered indifference or disinterest in the client, but that is not the
goal; rather, the goal is to become a mirror for the client, reflecting their own characteristics,
assumptions, and behaviors back at them to aid in their understanding of themselves.

Countertransference Analysis

This final key component of psychoanalysis is the analysis of countertransference, the analyst’s reactions
to the client and the material the client presents in sessions. According to Kernberg, the “contemporary
view of countertransference is that of a complex formation co-determined by the analyst’s reaction to
the patient’s transference, to the reality of the patient’s life, to the reality of the analyst’s life, and to
specific transference dispositions activated in the analyst as a reaction to the patient and his/her
material” (2016).

Countertransference analysis can be generally understood as the analyst’s attempts to analyze their own
reactions to the client, whatever form they take. To successfully engage in psychoanalytic treatment, the
analyst must be able to see the client objectively and understand both the transference happening in
the client and in his or her own experience.

Transference and Other Forms of Resistance in Psychoanalysis

Speaking of transference, it is one of the many forms of resistance considered in psychoanalysis. In
psychoanalytic theory, resistance has a specific meaning: the blocking of memories from consciousness
by the client (Fournier, 2018). More generally, as understood by psychology in general, resistance is the
client’s general unwillingness to change their behavior and engage in growth through therapy. This
resistance may be developed or motivated by a myriad of reasons, some conscious and some
unconscious, and can even be present in those who want to change.

Transference occurs when the client redirects their emotions and feelings from one person to another,
often unconsciously, and represents a resistance or obstacle between the client and their desired state
(healing). It frequently occurs in treatment in the form of transference onto the therapist, in which the
client applies their feelings and expectations toward another person onto the therapist.

There are many different types of transference, but the most common include:

 Paternal transference: in this type, the client looks to another person (potentially the therapist)
as a father or idealized father figure (e.g., wise, authoritative, powerful).

 Maternal transference: the client looks to another person as a mother or idealized mother
figure (e.g., comforting, loving, nurturing).

 Sibling transference: this type may occur when parental relationships break down or are
generally lacking; instead of treating this other person as a parent (in a leader/follower type
relationship), they transfer a more peer-based relationship onto the other person.

 Non-familial transference: this is a more general type of transference in which the client treats
others as idealized versions of what the client expects them to be, rather than what they truly
are; this type of transference can lead the client to form stereotypes (Good Therapy, 2015).

Transference is not necessarily harmful but may be a form of client resistance to treatment. If the client
is projecting inappropriate or unrealistic expectations onto the therapist, they may not be entirely open
to the change that treatment can provoke.

Resistance to treatment can also be understood in a more general, non-psychoanalytic manner. After all,
resistance to treatment is not an uncommon occurrence.

Psychodynamic vs. Psychoanalytic Theory

With all of the theories and disciplines sporting the “psycho” prefix, it’s easy to get them confused.

Psychodynamic theory and psychoanalytic theory have quite a bit in common; in fact, psychoanalytic
theory is a sub-theory underneath psychodynamic theory. “Psychodynamic” refers to all psychological
theories of human functioning and personality, and can be traced back to Freud’s original formulation of
psychoanalysis. By contrast, psychoanalytic theory refers specifically to the Freud’s psychoanalytic
theory, and none of the theories of his students or predecessors. 

Psychoanalysis vs. Psychotherapy

So, given the difference between the two “psycho-” theories above, what is the difference between
psychoanalysis and psychotherapy?

The main distinctions between psychoanalysis and psychotherapy lie in both the goals of the treatment
and the methods used to strive toward those goals.

Psychotherapy is a type of “talk therapy” that is offered as a treatment for a wide range of ailments and
mental disorders. The goal is to solve a problem and/or address symptoms that are affecting the client’s
quality of life, and there are many ways to go about working to reach this goal that varies by type of
psychotherapy.

Psychoanalysis also falls within this list of common types of psychotherapy, but it has a more specific
goal: helping the client (or patient) to overcome the desires and negative influences of his or her
unconscious mind. The techniques also differ from most other types of psychotherapy, and include the
stereotypical image of psychoanalysis as the client reclining on a couch facing away from the therapist
(or analyst) while discussing his or her past.

Psychotherapy can be undertaken with a variety of length and duration combinations, from once a
month to several times a week; on the other hand, psychoanalysis is almost always applied in an
intensive manner, often requiring three to five sessions a week for several years (Lee, 2010).

A Psychoanalyst vs. a Psychologist: Is there a difference?

In case the descriptions above didn’t make it clear, there is certainly a difference between a
psychoanalyst and a psychologist! A psychoanalyst has a particular set of skills gained from specific
training on psychoanalysis. While a psychotherapist may be seen as more of a “jack of all trades”
(although they often specialize in a type of therapy or particular problem as well), a psychoanalyst
generally sticks to practicing only psychoanalysis.

However, the two professions have more in common than it might seem; both focus on helping people
via talk therapy. Both use their skills to help their clients discover insights about themselves, address
their mental and emotional issues, and heal. In fact, a psychoanalyst is generally considered a type of
psychotherapist, one who specializes in psychoanalysis. Every psychoanalyst is also a psychotherapist,
but not every psychotherapist is a psychoanalyst.

 Psychoanalysis: A Very Short Introduction by Daniel Pick

 Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession by Janet Malcom

 Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Developmental Psychology by Joseph M. Masling and Robert F.

Bornstein

 Practical Psychoanalysis for Therapists and Patients by Owen Renik

 Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Therapies  (Theories of Psychotherapy) by Jeremy D. Safran

  The How-To Book for Students of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy  by Sheldon Bach