ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis is an intensive psychological talk therapy that explores the patient's unconscious, in particular, her unconscious motivations for how she feels, thinks, and behaves. A psychoanalyst's very lengthy intensive training, including a personal psychoanalysis, lengthy experiences in supervision, and years of didactic teaching, provides her with the opportunity to internalize standards that have developed over 120+ years to best serve the goals of treatment and the patient's needs. Several generations of psychiatrists have become psychoanalysts since the discipline was invented in the mid-1890s, although relatively fewer psychiatrists become psychoanalysts now than in days past, when in many psychoanalytic institutes it was difficult or impossible to be admitted for training unless one were a physician.
