About psychoanalysis

Founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), psychoanalysis uses speech and listening as a means of addressing the psychological problems and conflicts that cause us suffering in life.

At the heart of psychoanalytic work is speech. The patient is invited to speak freely, to say whatever comes to mind, while the analyst listens with a particular kind of attention that does not aim to advise or correct but to make it possible for something unexpected to be heard. In speaking in this way, the patient begins to hear themselves differently, encountering meanings that had previously remained hidden in their own words, and to find themselves able to say what had previously been unsayable.

Each person who comes to analysis is regarded as singular, with a history, language, and way of being in the world that are uniquely their own. The repetitions that cause us suffering in life, our symptoms, are not meaningless flaws to be corrected, but compromise formations through which repressed conflicts within the psyche find expression. Psychoanalysis turns toward these formations, allowing the conflicts underlying the symptom to be expressed and worked through in speech.

Working with the unconscious mind

Psychoanalysis begins from a simple yet radical premise: that much of what shapes our thoughts, feelings, and actions lies beyond conscious awareness, in the unconscious. This hidden dimension of mental life reveals itself in our symptoms, but also in dreams, slips of the tongue, and the repetitive patterns of behaviour that seem to exceed our will or conscious intention. Such unconscious formations are not random or meaningless phenomena but expressions of repressed thoughts and desires — fragments of experience that persist outside awareness, seeking a way to be heard. In analysis, attention is given to these manifestations of the unconscious. What appears irrational or senseless is treated as meaningful, as a disguised expression of conflict, compromise, or wish. Through the analytic process, what has been silenced or repressed begins to take form in speech and to be recognised.

The psychoanalytic work

Over the course of analysis, the analyst and patient meet regularly, working together to explore the patient’s speech and to listen for how the unconscious reveals itself. In the analytic session, the patient is invited to say whatever comes to mind, while the analyst listens attentively to the gaps, slips, and half-sayings through which repressed material finds expression in speech. This process of free association and analytic listening allows unconscious material to come to light in speech that would otherwise remain inaccessible. As the French psychoanalyst Serge Leclaire observed, “the work of psychoanalysis consists of letting the unconscious speak, in having the other story be heard.” It is through bringing this material into speech and working it through that psychoanalytic treatment has its transformative effect.

How we understand and work with symptoms in psychoanalysis

In psychoanalysis, symptoms such as anxiety, depression, phobias, addictions, and recurring difficulties in relationships are understood as expressions of underlying unconscious conflicts. Each symptom has its own logic: it bears traces of one’s history and experience and gives form to something that could not be spoken directly. Rather than aiming for immediate relief, psychoanalytic work turns toward the symptom to explore the associations it evokes. Through this process, the underlying conflicts that sustain the symptom can begin to be recognised and worked through. And, in time, the symptom loses the anguish bound up with it or finds another, less distressing form of expression.

Why pursue psychoanalysis rather than another form of therapy?

While many therapeutic approaches can be helpful in addressing particular difficulties, psychoanalysis is especially suited to long-standing and recurring forms of psychic suffering. Psychoanalysis is a sustained and intensive process that requires commitment from both analyst and patient. This intensity, together with its focus on the singularity of each person and the central role of unconscious factors, allows for a more comprehensive understanding of one’s experience and the sources of one’s suffering. Over time, the work of analysis allows something to shift at a deeper level, not simply a reduction in symptom severity, but a fundamental change in one’s relation to it and the conflicts that sustain it. Through this process, one may come to address underlying conflicts that other forms of therapy may have only touched on, and in doing so, undergo lasting change