Archive | Modern Psychoanalysis

Why is psychoanalysis the study of transference and resistance?

Freud said the study of psychoanalysis is the study of transference and resistance. What is resistance? You come into therapy, you’re told to say everything, put all your thoughts and feelings into words, into the space. It’s impossible, you get close but it’s impossible. Resistance is the impediment to doing so. There are internal and […]

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What is the Dual Drive Theory in Psychoanalysis?

In modern psychoanalysis, aggression is important. Managing aggression is healthy and maturational. In fact, there is something called the dual drive theory, one of the early theories of psychoanalysis. Freud first proposed that there was only libido, love, pulling things close and that encompassed all our actions and feelings. It took World War II for […]

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What Is Freud’s Concept of the Unconscious Mind?

 I want to talk, in some detail, about the unconscious mind. In Freud’s topographical model of the mind, there were three levels. There’s the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. Everybody says subconscious today, but that was not a term Freud used. The conscious is what we’re discussing right now. Quite easy. The preconscious […]

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Differences in Modern & Freudian Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis starts with Freud. It is the study of unconscious motivation that affects our behavior. Freud was a believer that interpretation was curative, that telling people why they act a certain way was curative. Modern Psychoanalysts don’t really believe that. Knowledge is not itself curative. If I told you why you were acting certain ways […]

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