By Joel Paige
The terms ‘psychotherapy’ and ‘psychoanalysis’ are sometimes used interchangeably by people who are not familiar with the basic concepts of human psychology. Suffice to say that the two terms represent two distinct approaches to helping people with mental and emotional problems.
To illustrate, consider a patient who visits a psychotherapist in London for help getting through the breakup of her marriage. Psychotherapy seems to help for a while, but then she reverts back to where she started. Now the therapist has to turn to psychoanalysis to figure out what is going on.
The differences between the two practices actually rests on how patients respond. As such, clinical therapists are trained to recognise what is going on with their patients at any given time. This allows for the transition to psychoanalysis should it become necessary.
Consciously Participating in Treatment
Psychology Today‘s Jennifer Kunst, PhD sees psychotherapy as an opportunity to give patients the tools they need to get better. She cites the Carl Rogers client-centred approach to helping patients who acknowledge they are struggling and consciously want to overcome their struggles.
In essence, psychotherapy is for those patients who are consciously and wilfully participating in treatment with the ultimate goal of experiencing better mental health. We could compare them to people who acknowledge they are overweight and consciously participate in a diet and exercise programme designed to take the weight off and keep it off.
Psychoanalysis is intended for patients who are resistant to psychotherapy, either consciously or unconsciously. It seeks to discover any underlying issues affecting the patient’s mental well-being.
Subconsciously Resisting Treatment
London psychoanalyst María R. de Almeida explains that many psychoanalysis patients subconsciously resist treatment. They enjoy moderate success during the first few sessions of therapy, but then seem to digress just as quickly. Before long, they find themselves right back where they started.
Using the previous example, this would be akin to a person who begins a diet and exercise regimen to lose weight, only to revert back to the previous behaviours that led to his or her obesity.
Often times, the behaviours that cause people mental and emotional stress are unconscious behaviours. They are usually coupled with unconscious thoughts and emotions. In essence, their brains are so accustomed to thinking in specific ways that they don’t even recognise it. Psychoanalysis looks to uncover what the brain so successfully hides.
Consciously Resisting Treatment
There are those cases in which a person is a good candidate for psychoanalysis mainly because they are consciously resisting psychotherapy treatment. This would be a person who is attending therapy sessions due to some sort of coercion. But given the choice, they would not attend.
In such a case, the person might acknowledge their mental and emotional challenges but still be unwilling to address them. They are afraid of what change means, or maybe they just do not want to put forth the effort. Either way, the point of psychoanalysis is to figure out why the resistance is there.
One May Lead to the Other
How a patient responds ultimately determines whether the clinician succeeds with psychotherapy or has to transition to psychoanalysis. In that sense, one treatment can lead to the other. A therapist will generally start with traditional psychotherapy and see where it leads. It may or may not lead to psychoanalysis.
Is there a difference between psychotherapy and psychoanalysis? Yes. The former is intended for patients who acknowledge their mental or emotional shortcomings and are willing to work with therapists to overcome them. The former is for patients who seemingly resist psychotherapy, whether they do so consciously or unconsciously.
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