[Infographic] Psychoanalytic Therapy

The history of psychoanalytic therapy and how it’s applied to help treat drug and alcohol addiction today.

What Is It?

According to the American Psychoanalytic Association, also known as talk therapy, the psychoanalytic framework emphasizes:

• Each individual is unique
• Certain factors that lie outside of an individual’s awareness, outside of conscious thoughts, feelings, experiences and emotions, have significant influence on behavior and thoughts.
• The present is shaped by the past.
• Individuals continue to develop and grow through each stage of life.

Pioneers In The Field

Sigmund Freud– an Austrian neurologist, developed psychoanalysis in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

A number of American theorists, known as neo-freudians, expanded upon Freud’s ideas about unconscious motivators, but added in a range of social, cultural and interpersonal variables:

Donald Winnicott– Studied interactions of babies and their mothers, drawing the conclusion that an individual’s sense of self is largely determined by the emotional support he or she receives from caregivers during childhood.

Robert Stolonow– Adds in the perspective of intersubjectivity, or the idea that just as the psychoanalyst influences the individual receiving analysis, that individual also influences the analyst.

Harry Stack Sullivan– Believed that personality is largely shaped by an individual’s network of personal interactions and relationships.

Understanding the Theory

The topographical model consisted of a map of the human psyche that includes three areas, the unconscious, and the preconscious.

• The Conscious: stores accessible experiences and feelings.
• The Preconscious: Stores emotions, experiences and ideas that had potential to be actively accessed at some later time
• The Unconscious: Contained emotions and thoughts that can’t be directly accessed.

Freud’s theory was based on three parts of the mind:

• The Ego: A set of organized functions that keep the id in check by moderating between the id, the super ego, and external realities.
• The Super Ego: A set of internalized rules that derive from cultural influences. The super ego uses guilt or criticism to produce certain culturally acceptable behaviors and moderate the desires of the id
• The ID: A set of unconscious energies, such as sexual or aggressive tendencies.

How the Therapy Works

Under a Freudian model, therapy follows what’s known as the free association method, where individuals attempt to bring the contents of the subconscious to the surface of their conscious mind.

80% of people who had been treated with psychotherapy were better off, a significant statistic.

The therapist and the individual undergoing analysis work together to create a relationship based on trust.

The therapist must remain objective, because it’s possible for the client to influence the therapist as much as the therapist influences the client.

The goal is for the individuals in therapy to learn how to recognize their own thought processes and take control.

The therapeutic alliance that forms between substance users and their therapists during talk therapy is an especially important piece of the puzzle

Studies indicate that a strong relationship of trust leads to higher long-term rates of sobriety.