Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Approaches to Therapy

Ricardo Ainslie

It has been over a century since Sigmund Freud first introduced psychoanalysis to the world and since “Anna O,” one of the earliest and most famous psychoanalytic patients, described the treatment she was receiving as “the talking cure.” Since those pioneering days of psychoanalysis, the influence of this theory can be seen in the myriad theories that have come into being either as extensions of psychoanalytic ideas or as reactions to them. Psychoanalysis is a form of treatment in which the client typically lies on the psychoanalyst's couch and “free associates,” while coming multiple times per week over the course of several years. Psychodynamic psychotherapy utilizes the constructs that inform psychoanalysis proper, but clients typically sit facing their therapists and are seen for one or two appointments per week. Treatments are often of shorter duration and some interventions may be of only a few weeks. More generally, however, psychoanalytic Psychoanalytic ...

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