What is Psychoanalysis?

Psychoanalysis is a unique, intensive form of psychotherapy that fosters personal development and liberation from unsatisfying or painful patterns of living. In pursuit of those goals, the individual in analysis and the analyst 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. Such an in-depth exploration can set in motion a process of personal transformation, a freshness of lived experience, a vitalized creativity, a rediscovered meaningfulness in relationship to people or life activities.

The process of psychoanalysis depends on the establishment of a safe, confidential relationship with one’s analyst. The frequency of sessions—typically two to five times a week—allows the patient’s dilemmas to come to life in the intricacies of the psychoanalytic relationship, offering a rich field of exploration. As the analyst maintains a devoted attentiveness, patient and analyst work together to grasp the meaning of the patient’s experience through emotional reactions, thoughts, memories, fantasies, dreams, images, and sensations. 

The decision to enter into psychoanalysis entails a mutual agreement between patient and analyst. Decisions about the frequency of sessions needed to sustain the process are reached jointly. The analytic process can be expected to unfold over a considerable period of time.

Contemporary psychoanalysts draw 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. Recent research studies have pointed to psychoanalytic therapies as highly effective treatments for a variety of different conditions; psychoanalytic therapies are among the most durable mental health treatments with the most lasting results.

This statement is based in part upon information provided by the Division of Psychoanalysis (Division 39) of the American Psychological Association (APA). The Division thanks the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis for their permission to reproduce some of the material presented in this brochure.