Freud may justly be called the most influential intellectual legislator of his age. His creation of psychoanalysis was at once a theory of the human psyche, a therapy for the relief of its ills, and an optic for the interpretation of culture and society. Despite repeated criticisms, attempted refutations, and qualifications of Freud’s work, its… Read more »
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No one is saying that the unconscious is a magic bullet. These are often complex conditions. Freud himself stressed that working with the unconscious is painstaking precisely because it is unconscious. Further, psychoanalysis has itself radically revised Freud’s original conclusions. But it now holds a century of wisdom on engaging this hidden and sometimes devastatingly… Read more »
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This is no different at the social level. When an economic system or government is responsible for personal harm, those affected can feel profoundly helpless, and cover that helplessness with self-criticism. Today, if you can’t become what the market wants, it can feel as if you are flawed and have no recourse except to be… Read more »
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These findings point to the value of a whole person approach in patients who have complex or persistent problems with depression. Longer-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy involves the shared commitment of patient and therapist to understanding emotionally painful parts of a depressed person’s life. This may activate a beneficial process of psychological growth with a lasting gain… Read more »
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This is a dense academic paper which very interestingly highlights the debate between nature and nurture. The paper presents recent research and puts the debate into a different perspective where genes and environment go hand in hand. The paper emphasises the importance of the environment and how it affects the structure and expression of the… Read more »
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Go into this therapy with an open mind, with a positive attitude. Decide at the very beginning that this is going to work because you want to participate in your healing. Psychoanalysis depends a lot on talking freely — a stream of consciousness. Wilhelm von Humboldt said in the 18th century, “Language is, as it… Read more »
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There is still an unjustified stigma around mental illnesses, but we’re not even talking about mental illness,” says Reidenberg. “We’re just talking about life and how hard life can be. The benefits of pscyhotherapy [can be viewed] more like stress-relievers like exercising and eating right — just strategies that help make life easier and help… Read more »
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We can think back to our earliest memories. We can imagine ourselves in the future, and whatever perceptions arise when we remember or when we imagine, whatever emotions arise, they again feel like they’re happening to the same person. So all of these things put together, in some sense, can be called our sense of… Read more »
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A summer read suggestion: “This extraordinary book is about one ordinary process: talking, listening, and understanding. Its aphoristic and elegant stories teach us a new kind of attentiveness. They also unveil a delicate self-portrait of the analyst at work and show how lessons learned in the consulting room can reveal as much to the analyst… Read more »
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“Why am I sharing this small story? Perhaps because I love that psychoanalysis is a frame through which I have permission to pay close attention to peripheral vision, to things that are out of focus and not so conscious. Enigmatic dreams, childhood memories and mourning are all welcome, and they open me to my own… Read more »
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