![Parliament breach accused underwent psychoanalysis – what is it? | Explained
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Parliament breach accused underwent psychoanalysis – what is it? | Explained Premium
The Hindu
On December 22, the Delhi Police said the six individuals accused in the Parliament breach incident underwent psychoanalysis at a government institute in the city in order to ascertain their motives. The term ‘psychoanalysis’ is usually restricted to the medical literature on mental health when it isn’t provoking suspicious questions. It is an important tool but is often misunderstood. This article, written by mental health expert Dr Alok Kulkarni, explains its history and concepts.
On December 22, the Delhi Police said the six individuals accused in the Parliament breach incident underwent psychoanalysis at a government institute in the city in order to ascertain their motives.
The term ‘psychoanalysis’ is usually restricted to the medical literature on mental health when it isn’t provoking suspicious questions. For example, in my own practice, many of my clients have asked me, “Are you psychoanalysing my mind?” Psychoanalysis is an important tool but is often misunderstood.
Psychoanalysis isn’t a form of psychotherapy but in fact a worldview. It was the first modern Western system of psychotherapy. The Viennese psychiatrist Sigmund Freud coined the term and developed it with many of his colleagues and peers. He developed psychoanalysis as a treatment modality for people presenting with symptoms that other physicians were unable to treat.
The prominence of such ‘classical psychoanalysis’ has declined over time, while the topic has itself evolved to become less authoritarian and more practical. Its evolution has been influenced by developments in neurology, psychiatry, psychology, philosophy, and the social and natural sciences.
Psychoanalysis aims to give people a greater degree of agency by facilitating awareness of their unconscious wishes and defences.
In 1886, Freud collaborated with physician Josef Breuer, known for his dramatic successes in treating clients with “hysteria”. Their approach involved nudging people to talk about themselves in a bid to recount buried traumatic experiences. Breur found that when these people were able to recall traumatic experiences in an affectively charged fashion, their symptoms diminished. This approach came to be known as “the talking cure”.
The unconscious is conceptually central to psychoanalytic theory. Freud posited that certain memories and associated affects are cut off from consciousness because of their threatening nature. Over time, he came to believe instinctual impulses and associated wishes – in addition to traumatic memories – were also not allowed into awareness, and that this happened via cultural conditioning: in which people believed such instincts were ‘unacceptable’.