What is Psychoanalysis?

Psychoanalysis is often referred to using Freud’s term: the talking cure. Words are important. Language is how we organize and symbolize our experience and how we communicate this experience to others. But the talking done in psychoanalytic therapy is about more than just words- it’s about feeling, dreaming, relating, and creating emotional meaning. Psychoanalysis isn’t an overly somber and intellectual endeavor. There’s room for humor, creativity, and spontaneity in treatment.

While it’s true that psychoanalysis focuses on the impact of the past on the present, the work of treatment is situated in the here and now. We talk about what’s in the room, the feelings that you bring in and the relational dynamics that are activated in the course of treatment. This “transference” of feelings allows for reworking of the past with new contingencies in the present. It’s through the exploration of feelings that we get to the heart of the matter.