Psychoanalysis: Why Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Isn't Extinct

There's a misconception that floats around about psychoanalysis: that it's extinct like the dinosaurs that once roamed this earth. But it's definitely not. Psychoanalysis is alive and well, though often quiet and unspoken.  The Mel Bornstein Clinic for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy is a testimony to that.

Ideas from psychoanalysis are present in practically every time a patient comes to see a psychotherapist.  Psychoanalysis is not defined by the silent therapist nodding and um-humming; it is not necessarily lying on a couch or meeting several times a week.  It lives in the active engagement of a carefully listening therapist, in the therapist’s invitation of his or her patient’s participation and partnership in therapy, in the therapist’s compassion and empathy and in both participants’ lively curiosity in how problems arise, how to understand them and how to live more freely.  

It helps us wonder why we find ourselves repeating patterns and problems that interfere in living life more fully.  And as people discover the invisible hand guiding these repetitions, we find there are more choices available to living life. Psychoanalysis is a window into how we think without always knowing what we are thinking!!  More than anything else, psychoanalysis is like the rudder of a ship that helps direct most psychotherapists in helping their patients live fuller, more satisfying lives.