Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis in English, Bos/Cro/Serbian, German
Psychotherapy in Vienna
Vienna is special for many reasons – one of them certainly being the fact that psychotherapy originated in this city, where Dr. Sigmund Freud founded the very first psychotherapeutic method – psychoanalysis.
Maintaining the tradition, Austria holds a high standard in the quality of psychotherapeutic treatment that is offered. Regulated by Federal Law, every licensed psychotherapist is required to complete an extensive theoretical education, practical, and personal work (regardless of other obtained (university) degrees). In addition, concurrent with the dynamic of globalization, a particular focus is placed on the culturally sensitive approach that is suitable for various nationalities and offered in different languages.
Psychoanalysis in Vienna
When psychoanalysis was founded in Vienna, it completely changed the way we view the human mind. One of the main postulates is that the mind is governed by the processes that are not (immediately) accessible to our conscious – that is, the mind is predominately ruled by the unconscious. The idea of the unconscious is well exemplified by the comment people sometimes make,
‘I do not want to do/feel this. (Intellectually) I know I should not be feeling (e.g., depressed, anxious, worried, et cetera), but I cannot help (control) it.’
That which cannot be controlled (by the intellect or conscious will), is what the psychoanalytic treatment is aiming to discover.
There are many myths and misconceptions about psychoanalysis. The two most frequently encountered relate to the idea that psychoanalytic treatment only involves ‘talking about the past or childhood’; the second is that it ‘has to last for a long time’ – before any improvement occurs.
Even though psychoanalytic treatment can entail talking about the past (almost as a rule, because a person her/himself addresses it) and can last for a longer time (than typical short-term treatments) – it does not have to be so. The main idea is to understand and genuinely work through the states and behaviors of a person – to the extent that is communicated and agreed in treatment.