Psychoanalysis is a method of analyzing psychic phenomena and treating emotional disorders that involves treatment sessions during which the patient is encouraged to talk freely about personal experiences and especially about early childhood and dreams (Feldman, 1999). Psychoanalysis is both a theory of mental functioning and a specific type of psychological treatment philosophy (Grünbaum, 1984).
Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of treatment in which the analytic patient verbalizes thoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams, from which the analyst formulates the unconscious conflicts causing the patient 's symptoms and character problems, and interprets them for the patient to create insight for resolution of the problems (Hendrick, 1999).
When psychoanalysis was started it was not in the shape of psychoanalysis. When it began, it was in the shape of hypnosis. When we look at the history of psychoanalysis, we find a few major influential figures- before Sigmund Feud-who contributed significantly to the development of psychoanalysis: viz Franz Anton Mesmer, The Nancy School- Liebault and Bernheim, Jean Martin Charcot, and Josef Breuer (Bootzin & Acocella, 1988).
Franz Anton Mesmer was a German physician and astrologist, who discovered what he called magnétisme animal (animal magnetism) and other spiritual forces often grouped together as mesmerism. The evolution of Mesmer 's ideas and practices led Scottish surgeon James Braid to develop hypnosis in 1842. Mesmer 's name is the root of the English verb "mesmerize"(Grünbaum, 1984).
After studying at the Jesuit universities of Dillingen and Ingolstadt, he took up the study of
References: Bootzin, R. R., & Acocella, R. J. (1988). Abnormal Psychology. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill Inc. Feldman, S. R. (1999). Understanding Psychology: International Edition. 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill College. The division of the McGraw Hill Companies. Grünbaum, A., (1984). The Foundations of Psychoanalysis. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hendrick, I., (1999). Facts and Theories of Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge. Thompson, C., (2002). Psychoanalysis. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.