Psychoanalysis for adults and adolescents in Barcelona
Psychoanalysis was founded with Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, and has thus been around for more than 100 years.
Shortly after it was introduced, psychoanalysis became quite popular and the psychoanalyst’s couch began to feature across culture in films, literature, and more. In addition, some psychoanalytic terms and concepts became part of our daily language. On the one hand, this caused psychoanalysis to expand its presence in culture, but on the other hand, it also led to confusion regarding the discipline’s practice and foundations. For a while, it seemed like everyone knew what a psychoanalytic cure was.
That is why it is important to clarify what psychoanalytic treatment involves.
What is psychoanalysis? What is it like at the beginning?
In a moment of subjective urgency, you might turn to a psychoanalyst who will listen to you without judgment or taking a moral stand. During the initial sessions, the psychoanalyst will try to help you put into words the suffering that has led you to seek help. Anxiety, embarrassment, comments, statements, and recent or past events that cause you discomfort, including the most intimate matters and things that might seem unspeakable, can be entrusted to a psychoanalyst. The psychoanalyst will give you support to help alleviate your suffering. They will also provide you with a safe space so you can speak freely about everything without being judged.
What does treatment entail? Psychoanalytic methodology
In our practice in Barcelona, however, treatment does not involve confession. In other words, it is not limited to discussing what we already know and have never been able to tell anyone. In psychoanalysis, what is said is different. Patients also say what they aren’t aware of, and that is what the psychoanalyst points out. Little by little, using free association, patients can express anything that comes to mind. Then, the words that the person uses about themselves and others can yield surprises; and discoveries that help to reduce the pain.
Analysis can also reveal the desire that leaves a mark and orders life. Psychoanalysis is not a moral experience, but rather a singular experience with words that points to unconscious desire, something hidden behind the conscious demand for help addressed to the analyst.
Psychoanalysis is guided by the desire of the patient and their knowledge of their symptoms. The treatment emphasizes the dignity of the symptom as the most unique aspect about the patient, and the analysis does not entail getting rid of them, but rather putting everything into words and recognizing oneself in the symptom. Over time, this approach allows the person to gain new knowledge about themselves and their
relationships.
What is a psychoanalysis session like?
Jacques-Alain Miller (founder of the World Association of Psychoanalysis) says that in a psychoanalysis session "we abstract ourselves from any evaluation of direct utility (...) A session is drawn from the course of existence to formulate what we can when we feel suffocated, freeing up an hour to talk before the pace of existence catches up with us again. (...) In each session there is confidence in indirect utility. In this sense, an analysis session is always an effort of poetry, a space for poetry that the patient reserves in the midst of their own existence, which is determined and driven by direct utility. What do we mean by poetry? It does not involve talent. In a session, this means that I do not worry about accuracy, I do not worry about what I say falling in line with what others believe, nor with what I can convey to them. (....) In a session, we can concentrate on our own nature, and we can say it on our own, say it through language - which already implies sharing it." (Un esfuerzo de poesía, Paidós, 2016).
What effects does it have?
Psychoanalysis provides therapeutic effects of relief to the exact extent that it recognizes the uniqueness of each person's desire. In addition, it allows the patient to take responsibility for their desires, even for the most unspeakable things. However, this is achieved without the subject having to adapt to the norm, to the customary, but rather affirming their desire in their constitutional deviation. Patients go to therapy with their complaints, with their shame about what they enjoy, or with their discomfort. The therapeutic effects of treatment do not involve correcting this deviation of desire into a norm. On the contrary, analysis entails affirming the desire when it is founded on something authentic. Engaging in analysis has the value of an act in the sense in which Jaques Lacan understood it, the act of a transformation.
Psychoanalysis with adolescents
One possible definition of adolescence would be "he most delicate of transitions". Therefore, it is not considered a biological phase, but rather a passage of discourse beyond puberty and into adult life. Freud compared this stage to "starting to drill a tunnel at each end simultaneously": there is thus an exit from childhood as well as an entry into adult life.
However, for psychoanalysis there is no "adolescence" as a generalizable phase for everyone. Each adolescent has their own experiences and history, and we must recognize this uniqueness.
There are two aspects that stand out in adolescence: relationships with others – and this involves seeing how they change, particularly with the parental or caregiver Other – along with issues related to their body and enjoyment. There is also the impact of the digital and the virtual world that translates into an extension of the universe of the possible, of possible worlds, right at our fingertips. This leads to confusion and a lack of guidance about desire.
Moreover, in terms of the knowledge that in the past was held by adults or educators,the impact of the virtual world means that information is now automatically available on the Internet and just a question away with AI. Previously, knowledge was sought from the Other. Today teenagers can find it on their own. However, an adolescent will not find the answers to the most enigmatic and difficult questions about themselves on the Internet, but they will be able to find them throughout treatment and the constructions they make based on their symptoms.
Reasons for consultation
Adolescents may seek a consultation for a wide variety of reasons that take shape in a unique way in each patient. Some reasons include: emotional problems (depression, anxiety, mood swings); eating disorders; apathy (regarding their studies, family, friends, or everyday life); addictions (technology, drugs, alcohol); or feelings of rejection about their body and self image. In psychoanalysis, the latter involves the ways of articulating the "ideal ego" and the "ego ideal" as Freud and Lacan described them.
Treatment for adolescents
Treatment for adolescents is based primarily on giving them room to speak, showing them that their words matter, and giving them the space and time necessary to talk.
Adolescents are often brought to a consultation by an adult. But without their consent to come, it is not possible to start treatment. This is something that must be worked on with them, also through discussions with family members or caregivers.
As with adults, the consultation creates an environment where the patient feels safe to express themselves without fear of being judged.
Leaving childhood behind to reach one's own way of inhabiting the word and living alongside others entails respecting the unique work by each person to forge their own voice.
In a psychoanalytic treatment, we assume that adolescents already have knowledge about themselves and their lives, even if they do not know how to state it. Treatment entails bringing it to light through their symptoms to give them a shape that will serve them on their journey to adult life, with the analyst guiding them along the way.