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What is a Psychoanalysis?
Psychoanalysis is the purest practice of free speech
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy aims to help those who have questions or problems in their life, or for whom life itself is a question or problem. A psychoanalysis is a highly personalised form of speaking freely and listening closely which respects what is specific, unique, and singular about someone’s experience of life from their own perspective.
Psychoanalysis lays bare the questions that are concealed by the answers
A psychoanalysis begins by seeking to understand what reality is for someone, rather than attempting to impose a reality upon them. Instead of aiming at a modification or adaptation of behaviour towards any particular expectation, standard or ideal, the work of a psychoanalysis will involve a questioning of such ideals and the role they might play in a person’s problems or suffering.
A psychoanalysis is the space of the possible
Psychoanalysis is a practice based on speech. When you begin a psychoanalysis the work will be led by your own words. Psychoanalysis works only with words, in the space between the pen and the pill. It aims to make this the space of the possible – a place where a re-organisation of things that seem impossible to think about or talk about adequately can be created. This is a highly individual process, one which is particular for each person in their experience of psychoanalysis.
In psychoanalytic work we will focus on what you are able to say about yourself, your life experiences, and the meanings you give to certain things over others. This involves an exploration of these meanings in a confidential space where you are encouraged to speak in an uninhibited way, free of the obligation to make sense, make something clear, or construct a narrative.
Gradually, from within your own words, another meaning may form which surprises you. It may change the way you understand something about yourself or your past experiences. As one meaning falls away it can take pain or suffering with it. Psychoanalytic work involves a renewed return – led by your own words – to these meanings until their negative effects soften. Over time, and at particular moments, a gradual reorganisation of your life can become possible, one which you create and re-create as a result. What was once a closed and difficult problem might become the site or a new meaning, or harbour a possible solution, through which a new way to live can be found. The work of psychoanalysis is a work of creation and transformation. Everyone is different.
I hold a PhD in psychoanalysis and practice psychoanalytic psychotherapy in person in London, England and online via platforms like Zoom, so as to work with people around the world. I work in the Clinic of The Guild of Psychotherapists and in private practice. I am UKCP registered and I abide by their Code of Ethics and Professional Practice. Fees are discussed after you get in touch and are agreed on an individual basis.
To arrange a consultation to discuss whether psychoanalysis is right for you, email me at contact@lacanonline.com