This article is intended for individuals considering booking a consultation to discuss beginning psychoanalysis or psychodynamic psychotherapy, as well as for general readers interested in learning more about these approaches.
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Psychoanalysis is unique in its thorough approach to human problems
Although psychoanalysis is only offered by a limited number of practitioners in Vancouver, it is a form of talk therapy with a long history, having been developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Its conjectures and insights concerning the human condition have stimulated many important intellectual debates of modern times, and it has had an influence reaching beyond medicine to include the creative arts, philosophy, and anthropology.
At the time of its development, many found it difficult to believe that pathological disorders of the body and mind could be treated by the mere “use of words.” In the years since psychoanalysis was first developed, many alternate forms of talk therapy have come into being.
There is now substantial evidence that talk therapy in general can be helpful for various personal issues, mental health concerns, and somatic symptoms.
Psychoanalysis continues to be practiced by specialists – people with specialized training in psychoanalysis. Since its early origins, it has evolved as a theory and now seeks to incorporate new findings from such fields as developmental psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive psychology which were not available to early theorists.
One thing that has always made psychoanalysis unique is that it is one of the most thorough forms of talk therapy available.
Psychoanalysis is more thorough than short-term supportive therapy
To understand what makes psychoanalysis a thorough approach to therapy, consider the ways in which it differs from the more short-term forms of supportive therapy that are widely offered by a range of counsellors and therapists in Vancouver.
Short-term therapy is less thorough because it focuses on the current stress or crisis
In short-term supportive therapy, the therapist’s work may be limited to offering encouragement, unconditional support for the individual’s point of view, and tips or education on healthy living.
People sometimes go into this kind of therapy if they are going through an unusually tough time in life (often connected with symptoms like anxiety or depression, or reduced functioning) and are just looking for a bit of encouragement.
Psychoanalysis is more thorough because it helps people to address the root of the problem
Everyone needs support sometimes. In fact, being in psychoanalysis itself can feel very safe and supportive. But psychoanalysts have extensive training enabling them to help people to deal with problems which have roots earlier in their lives. This is important since many people face a series of related stresses or crises over the course of their lives which continue to arise because they have never had the chance to address the root of the problem.
Because psychoanalysis takes a longer-term view of health and well-being, it is important to be able to draw on an ability for distress tolerance and delayed gratification while in analysis. People will often face thoughts and emotions that are distressing and which have been avoided for a long time when they pursue psychoanalysis and other longer-term therapies. It can sometimes feel like taking two steps forward, one step back. This is a normal part of the process. The path towards personal development and lasting change can be challenging. Sometimes people will come to psychoanalysis after they have tried less intensive therapies, since they realize that they are now looking for more thorough self-exploration and deeper change.
Psychoanalysis helps people to overcome unhelpful coping strategies from earlier in life
Human life can be difficult. Psychoanalysts take note of a range of difficult realities people must contend with over the courses of their lives. These include navigating the complex and sometimes disappointing social world of personal, family, and romantic relationships, facing illness and mortality, and dealing with wishes, impulses, emotions, and fantasies which are often not fully within conscious control.
People typically establish ways of coping with life’s challenges when they are young. But, for many people, approaches to coping from earlier in life persist into the present. The trouble is that these ways of coping do not always serve the individual very well. For example, children are not capable of, and are generally not expected to deal in direct ways with the difficult realities of life. So ways of coping that persist from childhood and are applied in adulthood may contain unrealistic and fantasy elements and may not be effective.
Psychoanalysts sometimes make this point by saying that people will often unconsciously seek out “substitutive satisfactions.” The ways in which an individual sought pleasure and the avoidance displeasure when they were young continues into the present, even though these do not necessarily correspond to the individual’s current capacity for dealing with the realities of life. As a consequence, they find that they are struggling with one or more aspects of life, and they may be experiencing common symptoms of psychological distress such as depression, anxiety, bad conscience and guilt, or a low sense of self-worth.
In psychoanalysis, we take account of your life history
[The psychoanalyst’s] work of construction, or, if it is preferred, of reconstruction, resembles to a great extent an archaeologist’s excavation of some dwelling-place that has been destroyed and buried or of some ancient edifice. (Sigmund Freud)
Understanding an individual’s life history and course of development is central to psychoanalysis. This includes the strategies the individual might have unconsciously developed to deal with past events which were difficult or painful.
This means that the work we do in psychoanalysis is in some ways similar to archaeology, excavating experiences that have gone before in a person’s life and which have led the person to deal the way they do with the difficult realities of life.
How far back in an individual’s life do we go in the course of an analysis? This depends on the nature of the individual’s difficulties and the thoroughness of analysis they are seeking.
But we know from experience that early material does tend to surface in an analysis. For many people, early memories can include experiences of fear, shame, physical pain, illnesses, deaths, and the births of brothers and sisters.
Analysis is an opportunity to process and work through obstacles to personal development
In order to be able to move beyond earlier ways of dealing with life, it is important but generally not enough merely to have an intellectual understanding of the details of one’s life history. It is also necessary to “work through” or “process” what has been avoided.
For this to occur, psychoanalysts place a unique emphasis on the resurfacing of phenomena from the past within the psychoanalytic treatment. We are looking for “repetitions” that occur in the analysis itself.
The method of psychoanalysis facilitates its aim of being a thorough treatment
The method of psychoanalysis is designed to facilitate its aim of being a thorough talk therapy treatment with a lasting impact.
An individual will come to sessions frequently enough for it to be possible to cover everything that needs to be said, and for us to observe what is happening in the here-and-now of the analysis itself. The individual in analysis does their best to say what is on their mind without censoring. This is called “free association.”
Analysis involves a commitment of time and resources. But it is an experience unlike most others you will have in the course of your life. For many people, it is worthwhile, since it can help them to work through the root causes of their problems and provide valuable self-understanding.
Psychoanalysis in Vancouver: Understanding the Difference Between Analysis and Psychodynamic Therapy
Both psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy differ from short-term therapies. Psychodynamic therapy, like psychoanalysis, starts from the premise that although support and encouragement can help an individual get through the present distress or crisis, this will not always be enough to bring about lasting change. In many cases, it is necessary to take the time to develop an understanding of the individual’s past, work through issues, and allow new and more effective ways of coping with life’s difficulties to emerge.
The key difference is that sessions usually occur less frequently in psychodynamic therapy than in psychoanalysis, which means that psychodynamic therapy does not aim to be as thorough as psychoanalysis. Still, many people looking for help that is grounded on the fostering of insight are satisfied with the benefits of psychodynamic therapy, and there is compelling evidence supporting its helpfulness. Some people begin with psychodynamic therapy and later decide to transition into psychoanalysis.