Quote:
“After eight years, I got up from the couch one day and offered my analyst a draw. We shook hands.” –Woody Allen
“The study of psychoanalytic theory can enrich anyone’s profession life,
regardless of career path. Psychoanalytic training is indispensable to ‘career tool kits’.” – Sylvia Welsh, Ph.D.
Definition of Profession:
Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods based on the work of Sigmund Freud. As a technique of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis seeks to discover connections among the unconscious components of patients’ mental processes. The analyst’s goal is to help liberate the patient from unexamined or unconscious barriers of transference and resistance, that is, past patterns of relating that are no longer serviceable or that inhibit freedom.
About the Field:
Psychoanalysis is a method for the investigation of mental processes inaccessible by other means. At the same time, psychoanalysis is also a therapeutic method for neurotic disorders. As therapeutic technique, psychoanalysis is different from psychiatry and psychotherapy in general, as it stipulates the existence of a psychic unconscious, and insists on analysis and the integration of the contents of unconscious as therapeutic procedure.
The psychoanalysis gradually built on clinical observation and research, accompanied by reflections and theoretical ideas concerning the structure of the psychic apparatus, the dynamic of mental processes, repression, resistance, transference, and more. Definition of psychoanalysis includes knowledge acquired from psychic unconscious research and analysis. Such knowledge has gradually made up a new body of science called psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalysis is also applied to the study of social, cultural, and religious phenomena. In this latter aspect, demanding for a re-evaluation of the mechanisms and meanings of culture, psychoanalysis has penetrated the consciousness of the wider public beyond its therapeutic limits.
How To Get There:
Graduate psychoanalysts trained under the auspices of the American Psychoanalytic Association have had very rigorous and extensive clinical education. Candidates accepted for training at an accredited psychoanalytic institute must meet high ethical, psychological, and professional standards. These candidates are either physicians who have completed a four-year residency program in psychiatry, psychologists or social workers who have completed a doctoral program in their fields or hold a clinical masters degree in a mental health field where such a degree is generally recognized as the highest clinical degree; all must have had extensive clinical experience. Outstandingly qualified scholar-researchers, educators, and selected other professionals may also be approved for psychoanalytic training. All accepted candidates, whatever their background, then begin at least four years of psychoanalytic training.
This training consists of three parts. Candidates attend classes in psychoanalytic theory and technique. They undergo a personal analysis. And they conduct the psychoanalysis of at least three patients under the close and extended supervision of experienced analysts. Candidates who plan to treat children attend further classes and, with supervision, analyze boys and girls ranging in age from toddlers to late adolescents. Besides conducting psychoanalysis, most graduate analysts also practice intensive and brief psychotherapy, sometimes prescribing medication. Many treat couples, conduct family or group therapy sessions, and work with the aging.
Because psychoanalysts are provided with the most thorough education available in normal and pathological development, their training enhances the quality of all their therapeutic work. It also informs their community activities as teachers, supervisors, consultants, and researchers, in the many different settings – hospitals, medical schools, colleges, day-care centers – where analysts are found.
Salary Range:
Psychoanalysts typically made between $150,000 and $210,000 per year.
Tools of the Trade /Lifestyle:
As a psychotherapist you are likely to work 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. However, private therapy sessions often take place in early morning or early evening to fit in with clients’ working times. A consultation will last from 30 to 60 minutes depending on what you agree with the client. Part-time work is possible. You will work with clients on a one-to-one basis or with larger groups such as couples or families. You may work at home or in an office.
You are:
• empathy, sincerity and sensitivity
• good listening and questioning skills
• a genuine interest in the emotional issues faced by people
• respect the variety of human experience and culture
• a non-judgmental and tolerant approach
• the ability to build rapport with a wide range of people
• an energetic and positive outlook
• commitment to self development
• the confidence to explore the painful aspects of a client’s life
Related Professions:
Counselors help people evaluate their interests, abilities, and disabilities and deal with personal, social, academic, and career problems. Others who help people in similar ways include teachers, social and human service assistants, social workers, psychologists, physicians and surgeons, registered nurses, members of the clergy, occupational therapists, and human resources, training, and labor relations managers and specialists.
