Psychoanalysis is now more than 125 years old. Fortunately, it has not stood still since then. Since Freud’s discovery, it has been subjected to analysis by numerous other great thinkers, each of whom has left their mark. Psychoanalysis today is a movement that recognises and defends the importance of its theory in contemporary practice. Basic concepts such as the hypothesis of the unconscious have now found their way into the broader field of psychotherapy and beyond. Nevertheless, these concepts are not always understood or applied in the same way. In this series, I will take a closer look at frequently asked questions, based on a personal vision derived from ten years of private practice.

Psychoanalysis is primarily a technique that unravels. Whereas Freud always assumed demonstrable, concrete traumas, this is no longer a prerequisite today. This has brought about a radical shift at the level of the unconscious, which has literally lost consistency. The idea that there is such a thing as an unconscious in which things are stored is an idea that rightly meets with criticism. This interpretation is a perfect illustration of the real problem: interpretation as such. If one assumes consciousness, one accepts that something passes it by, that’s it. What follows is therefore subject to… interpretation. An important effect of psychoanalytic psychotherapy is the recognition and acknowledgement of the subjective choices one makes when interpreting.

The basic hypothesis is that there is something that eludes us. What that is exactly is, by definition, unknown. Strictly speaking, we cannot find out, because there is no a priori truth. We must therefore analyse this sparingly. By talking, we discover room for interpretation of that which eludes us as something that keeps returning to the same place and transforms into fixations (connections) at the level of meaning (this means this). In complex cases, such connections result in symptoms. Symptoms are primarily constructions that help us deal with a complex reality until we start to suffer from it. In other words, to alleviate symptoms, we start talking, unravel connections (which are supposed to be temporary) and update our interpretations.

Looking at it from this angle, one will find that psychoanalytic psychotherapy has more in common with other schools of thought than one might initially think. One important difference, however, is the specific way of speaking that is characteristic of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. This way of speaking can be compared to stringing words together and disconnecting them from their fixed meanings which are holding back the “flow of words”, so that something new can emerge. I will leave it there for today and pick up where I left off next time.