Understanding Psychoanalysis:  Knowing Ourselves More Deeply

What psychoanalysis really is — and how it helps us live more freely and fully.

​Psychoanalysis has often been misunderstood and unfairly caricatured — even by academics and professionals. It’s been reduced to clichés about Freud and couches, when in fact it has grown and evolved for more than a century. To confuse psychoanalysis with Freud is like equating modern astrophysics with Copernicus or biology with Darwin. Freud started the journey, but the field has expanded far beyond its origins.

The core insights of psychoanalysis remain timeless: that our earliest attachments shape us throughout life, that emotional pain can create symptoms, and that talking with someone over time can heal. Psychoanalysis today refers to three things:
- a body of knowledge about the human mind built over more than a century;
- a range of treatments based on that knowledge; and
- a way of thinking about people — curious, respectful, and open-minded.
We Don’t Fully Know Our Own MindsBeing human means we all have blind spots. There are layers to our awareness — thoughts and feelings we know, and others we don’t. The things outside our awareness can still shape our actions, choices, and relationships. Psychoanalysis helps us discover more of who we are, so we can live less automatically and more freely.
Patterns from the PastOur early relationships leave deep impressions. We internalise ways of relating — expectations about what others are like and what’s expected of us. These “relational templates” shape every later relationship, often without our noticing. In therapy, these patterns naturally reappear, allowing them to be recognised, understood, and reworked.
The Therapy RelationshipThe therapy relationship is not about advice or instruction. It’s a space where these patterns come alive so they can be explored. What happens between therapist and patient often mirrors other relationships, offering a chance to see and understand ourselves in new ways — what psychoanalysts call transference. 

Psychoanalytic therapists work with humility and respect. They don’t claim to know what’s right for another person. Their stance is one of neutrality — not indifference, but a deep respect for the patient’s autonomy. Their role is to help people understand themselves more deeply so they can find their own answers.
The Patient’s TaskPatients are invited to speak freely — to say whatever comes to mind, even if it seems trivial or embarrassing. The aim isn’t perfect expression but honesty and curiosity. This openness makes it possible to notice what gets avoided or dismissed, and to explore why.
Making the Unconscious ConsciousTherapy helps slow things down. Before therapy, A may automatically lead to B — a reflexive pattern. In therapy, we pause and notice what happens between A and B: the feelings, thoughts, sensations, and memories that influence our actions. With awareness comes choice — and with choice, freedom.
Evidence, Time, and Real ChangeMore than a century of clinical experience and many decades of rigorous empirical research have taught us a few reliable things about psychotherapy.

When people first begin therapy—of any kind—they often notice some easing of distress quite quickly. Just taking the step to seek help, to speak openly, and to take active agency in their own wellbeing can itself bring immediate relief.

But symptom relief is not the same as psychological change. Research shows that meaningful, lasting change—the kind that alters how we experience ourselves and our relationships—takes time.

On average:
- Around six months of regular therapy is usually needed before shifts in deeper emotional patterns begin to appear in a clinically significant way.
- A year or two of consistent work is often needed for people to achieve the deeper changes they seek—to feel and act differently, not just think differently.

This doesn’t mean therapy 'takes years to feel better,' but that different layers of change unfold at different paces. Quick symptom relief may happen early, but genuine transformation of the self takes longer and depends on the depth of the difficulties being worked through.
Consider Depression as an ExampleDepression isn’t a cause in itself—it’s an effect. People don’t 'catch' depression the way they catch the flu. By the time someone seeks help, the depression has become a visible sign of underlying emotional struggles, often tied to long-standing patterns in relationships, losses, or conflicts within the self.

A truly therapeutic process doesn’t just aim to make symptoms go away; it helps uncover and work through the causes that lie beneath them. This is why psychoanalytic therapy takes time: because it aims not merely to patch over the problem, but to create the conditions for real and lasting change.
The goal of psychoanalytic work is not to dwell in the past but to live more fully in the present — with greater self-understanding, flexibility, and freedom. By recognising and working through what once operated outside our awareness, we can stop repeating old patterns and create new possibilities.

Psychoanalysis is ultimately an act of respect: for the complexity of the human mind, for our inner conflicts, and for our lifelong capacity to grow.