What is Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a comprehensive approach to man's mind and his inner world. It was founded by Sigmund Freud at the beginning of the 20th century and has continued to develop since then. It has three interrelated components: research, theory, and treatment.

Psychoanalysis regards the mind as including an unconscious and irrational part, which exerts much influence and plays a major role in determining our functioning. Man's development, from birth onward, is fashioned by his innate drives, his internal capacities, and his deep relationships with the significant others. His inner world, created through these reciprocal influences, provides the key for the understanding of human experience and behavior, with all its richness, complexity and suffering.

In Israel, as in many other countries, the psychoanalytic society incorporates psychoanalysts and maintains a Psychoanalytic Institute that provides psychoanalytic training. The Israel Psychoanalytic Society is affiliated with the International Psychoanalytic Association, which is charged with overseeing worldwide relationships, development and standing of psychoanalysis, and with the setting of standards for psychoanalytic training.

Psychoanalytic Therapy