Psychoanalysis

• Psychoanalysis:

  • a therapy in which patients verbalise their thoughts with the aim of accessing the unconscious mind as repressed trauma is causing 'criminal' behaviour. By accessing the unconscious, the patient is bringing trauma into their conscious experience so that it can be dealt with directly.
• An example of psychoanalysis is a dream analysis as it enables psychologists to understand more about a patient's mind and trauma.
• Psychoanalysis: evaluation

  strengths: there is supporting evidence for it being a successful therapy as it works as well as other psychotherapy treatments e.g. CBT

  weakness: psychoanalysis is time-consuming and expensive. It may take many years to uncover repressed memories as the patient could be improving on their own. Additionally, they could uncover painful memories that were deliberately repressed. This means that the therapy is not appropriate for everyone.