ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis is both a way of exploring the psyche and a form of psychotherapy, the one always merging with the other. Its strength lies in its acknowledgement of the irrational. More than any other discipline, it accepts that people express themselves in strange and individual ways, sometimes saying one thing while meaning another; denying what is patently true; appearing upset about one thing while really being upset about another; and not knowing why they say what they say. It acknowledges that people can harbour perverse and offensive intents, and be capable of appalling acts of cruelty. It maintains that awareness of such intents and such acts are denied in order to preserve a veneer of respectability.
