CULTURAL ASPECT OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

Cultural Aspect of Psychoanalysis

Cultural Aspect of Psychoanalysis

Introduction

Psychoanalytic theory is simultaneously a developmental theory, a personality theory, and a theory of intervention. Freud's original instinctual theories emphasized the role of sexuality and aggression. Since that beginning, psychoanalysis has evolved in significant new directions. Significant developments include object relations theory (which emphasizes the way in which people's history of relationships form part of their psychology and shape them in profound ways), ego psychology (which emphasizes the complex relationship between the evolving ego and reality), separation-individuation theory (which describes the trajectory from psychological symbiosis to a sense of autonomy), self psychology (which theorizes about narcissism as a normal developmental line and about the emotional forces that create and shape people's sense of self), and relational and interpersonal models (which emphasize the interpersonal context of the therapeutic situation and its role in resolving conflicts).

Each of these psychoanalytic theories evolved from Freud's original framework and each emphasizes different aspects of psychological development or different ways of intervening therapeutically. Today psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic treatments refer to this collection of concepts and theoretical positions that have evolved over the past century. Within psychoanalytic theory, there are schools that favor one of these views over others, and practitioners whose work may be more informed by one of these approaches over the others. These psychoanalytically informed therapies represent a complex set of assumptions and processes. They tend to be less directive or concretely problem solving in spirit than many other therapeutic approaches. Instead, they tend to emphasize the importance of insight and self-understanding as key curative elements in psychotherapy. Nevertheless, the different psychoanalytic schools are all derived from the core tenets of psychoanalytic theory and most psychoanalytic practitioners are conversant in all of these languages even if they emphasize one approach over the others in their own work.

Core Assumptions

Notwithstanding this diversity of theoretical positions, psychoanalytic therapies tend to share certain core assumptions, such as the importance of the dynamic unconscious, the role of psychological defenses in mental functioning, and the importance of childhood experiences in shaping personality, including the conflicts that are the basis for psychopathology. The most central and fundamental of these shared constructs is the concept of the dynamic unconscious. One of Freud's earliest observations, the dynamic unconscious centers on the idea that there are thoughts, feelings, memories, and experiences about which people are unaware or not fully aware that form part of their psychology. Unlike some theories of unconscious perception and cognition, however, the key to the psychoanalytic use of this concept is its emphasis on psychodynamic processes. In other words, it is not only that there are memories, thoughts, and feelings that exist outside of conscious awareness, but also that these influence human motivation and behavior. Furthermore, individuals have a powerful need to keep these thoughts and feelings out of awareness because their emergence into consciousness is all too often associated with problematic feelings such as anxiety, guilt, and shame. Thus, unconscious conflicts form the basis of our motivational processes and they ...