Psychoanalysis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A method of treating mental and emotional disorders by examining unconscious thoughts, desires, and memories through therapeutic conversation and dream interpretation to uncover hidden psychological conflicts
2. A therapeutic practice involving the systematic exploration of repressed thoughts and unconscious motivations through techniques like free association and dream analysis to resolve inner psychological tensions
3. A therapeutic approach that investigates the influence of unconscious processes on behavior and emotions by analyzing thoughts, dreams, and underlying social factors to facilitate healing

Etymology: Freud's name is attached to this word, and the coinage came from his German circle. "Psychoanalyse" was the German term, and English took it up as "psychoanalysis" through international scientific vocabulary, the shared Greek and Latin building blocks that scientists in many countries drew on for new terms. The word is built from "psycho-", from the Greek "psykhē" meaning soul or mind, and "analysis", from the Greek "analysis", a loosening or breaking up into parts. Put together, the name describes a method of breaking the mind down into its parts to examine what lies beneath conscious awareness. The surprise is in the second half of the compound. "Analysis" in its original Greek sense was a physical act of unloosing, and the chemical and mathematical senses of taking something apart came later. Freud's choice, then, borrowed the language of the laboratory and applied it to thought itself, treating the mind as something that could be dismantled piece by piece, much as a chemist separates a compound into its elements.

Synonyms: therapy, psychotherapy, analysis, counseling, treatment