being a patient...
Psychoanalysis affirms the uniqueness of an individual’s experiences and focuses on the way one has adapted, or continues to be influenced, by relationships and events from earlier parts of one’s life. Meeting more frequently than in a psychotherapy treatment, generally 3-5 times a week, the relationship that develops between analyst and patient is an important aspect and vehicle for awareness and transformation. Often people seek psychoanalysis to understand a pattern they have noticed that has held them back from fulfilling work or relationships, and to experience changes with some aspect of their life that continues to elude or plague them. Psychoanalysis requires a time commitment and a willingness from patients to explore difficult feelings with the help of the analyst. It can often help to build new pathways and structures for deep, lasting change.
Psychoanalysis arose from an appreciation of the power of people talking directly to one another about questions that matter and issues that are difficult to understand. As human beings are built for communication, we aim to understand, and be understood. When reading the news, interacting on social media, or in everyday conversation, many of us seek to understand “what motivates people?” And many of us are asking why people behave counter to their own interests...
Psychoanalysis, when it is carried out properly, is a more focused and aware way of providing the individual with what they need to grow. There are many people who know how to relate to others with depth and empathy, which are precious natural gifts. But psychoanalytic empathy is technically another thing: it has a different technical complexity, for example, it involves tuning into different parts of the patient that are at odds with each other, such as affection and hatred felt at the same time towards the same person...
