Psychoanalysis is the treatment of someone who has mental problems by asking them about their feelings and their past in order to try to discover what may be causing their condition.
psychoanalysis in British English
(ˌsaɪkəʊəˈnælɪsɪs)
noun
a method of studying the mind and treating psychiatric and emotional disorders based on revealing and investigating the role of the unconscious mind
Derived forms
psychoanalyst (ˌsaɪkəʊˈænəlɪst)
noun
psychoanalytic (ˌsaɪkəʊˌænəˈlɪtɪk) or psychoanalytical (ˌpsychoˌanaˈlytical)
adjective
psychoanalytically (ˌpsychoˌanaˈlytically)
adverb
psychoanalysis in American English
(ˌsaɪkoʊəˈnæləsɪs)
noun
1.
a method, developed by Freud and others, of investigating mental processes and of treating neuroses and some other disorders of the mind: it is based on the assumption that such disorders are the result of the rejection by the conscious mind of factors that then persist in the unconscious as repressed instinctual forces, causing conflicts which may be resolved or diminished by discovering and analyzing the repressions and bringing them into consciousnessthrough the use of such techniques as free association, dream analysis, etc.
These are what we want from life and now... they seem gone, and both Zen and psychoanalysis seem incapable of bringing them back.
George Cockcroft THE DICE MAN (1971)
Word lists with
psychoanalysis
Branches of medicine, Psychology terms
In other languages
psychoanalysis
British English: psychoanalysis NOUN
Psychoanalysis is the treatment of someone who has mental problems by asking them about their feelings and their past in order to try to discover what may be causing their condition.