Psychoanalysis, established in the early 1890s by Sigmund Freud, comprises theories and techniques to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behavior, and a talk-therapy method for treating mental disorders built from Freud's synthesis of neurology, ethnology and his own clinical case work. It split into multiple later schools, including Jungian, Lacanian and object-relations approaches.
Facts
Central QuestionHow do unconscious mental processes shape conscious thought, emotion and behavior, and can talk-based technique treat the resulting psychopathology? 1 Founded Year Connections
Rejected Here
Jung broke with Freud in 1913 over the nature of the libido, founding analytical psychology as a distinct school rather than a variant of psychoanalysis.
Source Analytical psychology
Adler broke with Freud's psychoanalytic circle in 1911, rejecting its emphasis on sex and libido for social, vocational and holistic factors.
Source Wikipedia: Individual Psychology
Critiqued Here
Maslow argued psychoanalysis addressed only human pathology, framing humanistic psychology's 'third force' as the healthy complement Freud's system left out.
Source Humanistic psychology
Held Differently
A structuralist reinterpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis, not a rejection of it.
Source Wikipedia: Lacanianism
Source Wikipedia: Object Relations Theory
Associated With
Psychodynamic names the psychoanalytic tradition MBT integrates alongside cognitive-behavioral, systemic and ecological approaches.
Source Wikipedia: Mentalization-based treatment
Founded By
Source Psychoanalysis
In Branch
Open Questions
Source Psychoanalysis
Sources
1. Psychoanalysis
Wikimedia FoundationOverview section
the contents of the unconscious largely determine cognition and behavior
Open Questions: Can psychoanalytic claims about the unconscious be falsified?, Critics of the abuse thesis and psychoanalysis in general section
its central assumption of three interlinked metapsychological functions (instincts, consciousness, and memory) cannot be refuted.
Humanistic psychology
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Humanistic Psychology, History sectionQuote, Associated With: Humanistic Psychology, History section
it is as if Freud supplied us the sick half of psychology and we must now fill it out with the healthy half.
Wikipedia: Object Relations Theory
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Object Relations Theory, IntroductionQuote, Associated With: Object Relations Theory, Introduction
While its groundwork derives from theories of development of the ego in Freudian psychodynamics, object relations theory does not place emphasis on the role of biological drives in the formation of personality in adulthood.
Analytical psychology
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Analytical Psychology, The break with Freud sectionQuote, Associated With: Analytical Psychology, The break with Freud section
In particular, tensions manifested between him and Freud because of various disagreements, including those concerning the nature of the libido.
Wikipedia: Individual Psychology
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Individual Psychology, Adler's psychology sectionQuote, Associated With: Individual Psychology, Adler's psychology section
Adler's model departs from Freudian emphasis on sex and libido and instead focuses on how individuals evaluate and respond to their world, particularly the social, vocational, and love-related demands they encounter.
Wikipedia: Lacanianism
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Lacanian Psychoanalysis, IntroductionQuote, Associated With: Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Introduction
It is a theoretical approach that attempts to explain the mind, behaviour, and culture through a structuralist and post-structuralist extension of classical psychoanalysis.
Wikipedia: Mentalization-based treatment
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Mentalization-Based Treatment, Wikipedia, Mentalization-based treatment, lead sectionQuote, Associated With: Mentalization-Based Treatment, Wikipedia, Mentalization-based treatment, lead section
Mentalization-based treatment or Mentalization-based therapy (MBT) is an integrative form of psychotherapy, bringing together aspects of psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, systemic and ecological approaches.
Open Questions (1 open question)
Can psychoanalytic claims about the unconscious be falsified?
Karl Popper argued psychoanalysis lacks scientific rigor because its central claims about instinct, consciousness and memory are constructed so that they cannot be refuted by any possible observation, a criticism aimed specifically at how the theory explains conscious acts after the fact. Psychoanalytic clinicians and researchers dispute this, and empirical studies of psychoanalytic psychotherapy's effectiveness report benefits for some disorders while the field's own overall efficacy remains contested, so whether the core theoretical claims (as opposed to the therapy's outcomes) are testable at all is unsettled.
What would resolve this A precise, pre-registered operationalization of a specific psychoanalytic mechanism (for example a defense mechanism's predicted behavioral signature) stated in a form that specifies in advance what observation would count against it, then tested.
Philosophy of science and clinical psychologyPsychoanalysis
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