10 Extraordinary Phrases About Psychoanalysis

There are too many important phrases about psychoanalysis. In this sphere of knowledge the word occupies a preferential place. In fact, one of the founding patients of the psychoanalytic field called her therapy “cure by the word.”

There are those who define this knowledge as a current of psychology, but this is not exact. Although the object of study is the same, the epistemology  of both fields is very different. This is evident in many key phrases of psychoanalysis.

The psychoanalytic has been disruptive since its appearance. Today it continues to be the subject of much controversy. However, it has also proven to be a powerful theory that forever changed how we understand the human mind. The following are some of the key phrases in psychoanalysis.

1. What is not said, returns

This is one of the key phrases of psychoanalysis because it refers us to a central concept in this theory: repression. Sigmund Freud emphasized the fact that the repressed returns. However, it does not return as it was repressed, but returns transformed into a neurotic symptom.

2. Civilization, one of the key phrases in psychoanalysis

This phrase by Freud refers to an unpleasant reality: violence is a constitutive part of the human being. However, that raw violence becomes an irrational act. On the other hand, when it is transformed into a word it  enters a symbolic dimension that allows the construction of a civilization, as opposed to a horde.

3. What is neurosis?

A very Freudian definition of neurosis: inability to tolerate what we are and what we are not; that, in fact, everything is and is not. It would be much easier for everything to be fully defined: black or white. And yet the human does not have that characteristic. To wish the categorical is to wish the impossible.

4. The origin of desire

Jacques Lacan is perhaps the most cryptic of all the great psychoanalysts. The heading is one of the phrases on Lacanian psychoanalysis. It refers to the concept of “lack” that is crucial in his theory. It is from this void that desire arises, in its broad sense. That lack is also the origin of creation, invention and advancement.

5. What to know about love

Lacan defined love as a decoy, illusory and at the same time magical. What is intended in love is to complete that other that we do not even really know, but we imagine. We are not able to do that, nor does the loved object correspond to the fantasies we make of it.

6. See you at each other

Carl Jung is the author of many of the key phrases in psychoanalysis. In this it refers us to the projection mechanism, an unconscious movement by which we reject in the other what we detest about ourselves. Other people’s behaviors that irritate us are like a mirror to see ourselves more clearly.

7. Denial and acceptance

This phrase masterfully summarizes the dynamic between the conscious and the unconscious. Denying something is a way of giving it a more relevant status, to the point that it becomes a guiding force in life. On the other hand, accepting reality frees and allows life to be redirected. Resistance only leads to encystment.

8. Understanding loneliness

This quote beautifully describes the nature of loneliness. It is not a physical state, but an inability to tell another what is crucial to you. Likewise, the feeling of being misunderstood, of realizing that one’s own meanings do not find an echo in others.

9. The power of transfer

Sandor Ferenczi, another of the greats of psychoanalysis, studied very thoroughly one of the central phenomena of this field: transference.

In therapeutic terms, the most important thing in this space is the bond that is forged between the psychoanalyst and his patient, or between the analyst and the analysand. This reproduces the repressed and for that very reason it is the way to heal.

10. Death is the real thing

Even if you don’t think about it, death is on the horizon of all life. This generates fear and fear, in turn, takes unexpected forms. One of them is, for example, to avoid any situation that implies risks, novelty or lack of certainty.

As it is, life itself is diluted. There are many other phrases about psychoanalysis, but those cited give us a very general idea of ​​the concepts that have marked this field of knowledge. They serve, above all, to initiate reflections from a different perspective.