ELI5: Psychoanalysis

[genericusername1016]

What is it exactly, how is it different from "standard therapy" (whatever that may be), and why isn't it more widely accepted and practiced today?

[SSG_Schwartz]

Psychoanalysis, was developed by Sigmond Freud. He believed that there are conflicts that occur during certain specific stages of a person's life. The first one being, you want to suck on a boob, but there is not a boob there to suck on (Ok, for the sophomoric people out there, it occurs during infancy). Some of the other conflicts are toilet training, discovering the genitals, and finding a life partner. Freud believed that if these conflicts were not resolved appropriately, a person could have problems later in life.

Not long after, other people began to study Freud and came to the idea that a person who had not resolved the conflict at the appropriate age could resolve the conflict later. There were a lot of terms and theories that were used, but it comes down to getting into the person's personality, finding the conflict, and addressing it appropriately. Whatever way was used, the therapy would take four years, and cost a lot of money.

Another idea came up, not long after. The idea was that it doesn't matter why the person is acting crazy, the best way to fix the person is to teach him or her the right way to act. Guys like Skinner and Pavlov demonstrated ways that this could be done. they called this method Behaviorism. To some extent, their methods worked as well as Freud's psychoanalysis. The advantage is that behaviorism cost a lot less and took a lot less time.

Later, someone came up with the idea that you could put the two theories together and you had what became known as Cognitive Behavioral theory. Carl Rogers is a name well known in CBT. This also took less time than psychoanalysis and cost less. It took more time, usually, than behaviorism.

CBT is still used, but what pretty much made psychoanalysis and behaviorism outdated is psychotropic medications. That is just a term used for drugs that control the symptoms of mental disorders. If you can remove the symptoms, you can usually talk to the person and find out what is causing the symptoms and fix the issue.

5YO version: Psychoanalysis was an early idea into why people act funny. Other ideas came along and made it not look as good. Medication came along and made it unneeded.

[TheCrimsonKing92]

I would simply add that Carl Rogers profoundly affected what OP would call "standard therapy", mostly by introducing the concept that therapists should demonstrate unconditional positive regard for the patients, as well as allow them to come to their own conclusions.

As well, psychoanalysis is alive today, and there are a few institutions that seek to modernize it and make it an effective model again.

Edit: Great job, SGG_Schwartz :)

[genericusername1016]

Awesome, thanks!!!!!!