UGGGHH! I have such a passionate dislike of psychoanalysis. It’s about the same as astrology to me. (Don’t get me wrong… Defensive mechanisms are very useful.) It’s all the regression bullshit that needs to be trashed. Then you have all this shit about ids, egos and superegos as if any of that is real. And, let’s not forget the crowning glory of psychoanalysis, “The free flow of information from the unconscious to the conscious.” and the process will take from 3 to 7 years. HORSESHIT! So to compete with much better theories, the psychoanalysts have had to come up with some brief treatment modalities. And because a Psychoanalyst is a medical doctor with only 3 years training in the specialty compared to a Clinical Psychologist with 8 to 10 years training, the Doctor gets to charge Doctors rated and engage in the “Washing Machine Principle.”
Washing Machine Principle: You wash your white socks and if they come out not looking so white, you toss them in the wash and wash them again. You keep doing the same thing over and over again. Psychoanalysis is the ONLY psychological theory that has “resistance.” Resistance is when the client does not agree with the psychotherapist. In psychoanalysis, the therapist knows more about the client than the client knows about themselves. The therapist interprets the clients behaviors, thoughts, dreams, associations… according to psychoanalytic theory.
There is little evidence for the success of psychoanalysis when the intervening variable of natural maturation is controlled for. In other words, do people report decreases in symptomatic behaviors due to psychoanalytic treatment or by virtue of the fact that they are simply growing and maturing?