ABSTRACT
This chapter describes "psychoanalysis" and "psychotherapy" and highlights the importance of contemporary psychoanalytic thinking, whether undertaken by an analyst or a psychotherapist. Perceptions of clinical differences between these modalities are acknowledged. The term "psychoanalysis" is equally understood as a theory through which to think about subjectivity, with political and social implications. The chapter examines how psychoanalytic thinking and theory is an evident and relevant part of psyculture in the Western sociological landscape of the twenty-first century. It examines anti and pro-therapy literature, and argues questions about the failure of psychotherapy to communicate its knowledge and relevance with conviction. The leads it to the question of whether it is possible for the psychotherapy profession to muster its own passion and focus, or indeed whether it might consider it a responsibility to do. Whilst the main tenets of psychotherapy are everywhere in modern psy-culture, we are difficult to define and perceive a distinct profession or theoretical foundation, or even as an ideology.
