10 extraordinary phrases about psychoanalysis

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There are several phrases about psychoanalysis that have become very popular. Others are not as well known, but they illustrate well some of its central concepts. We have made a selection of them.

There are too many important phrases about psychoanalysis. In this sphere of knowledge the word occupies a special place.. In fact, one of the founding patients of the psychoanalytic field called her therapy a “talking cure.”

There are those who define this knowledge as a current of psychology, but this is not accurate. Although the object of study is the same, the epistemology of both fields is very different. This is evident in many key phrases of psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis has been disruptive since its appearance. Today it continues to be the subject of many controversies. However, it has also proven to be a powerful theory that forever changed how we understand the human mind. The following are some of the key phrases in psychoanalysis.

“The symptom is a metaphor”.

-Jacques Lacan-

1. What is not said, comes back

“Unexpressed emotions never die. They are buried alive and come out later in worse forms”.

-Sigmund Freud-

This is one of the key phrases of psychoanalysis because it refers us to a central concept in this theory: repression. Sigmund Freud emphasized the fact that what is repressed returns. However, does not return as it was repressed, but returns transformed into a neurotic symptom.

2. Civilization, one of the key phrases in psychoanalysis

“Civilization began the first moment an angry man threw a word instead of a rock”.

-Sigmund Freud-

This phrase from Freud refers to an unpleasant reality: violence is a constitutive part of the human being. However, this raw violence becomes an irrational act. Instead, when it becomes a word enters a symbolic dimension that allows us to build a civilizationas opposed to a horde.

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3. What is neurosis?

“Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity”.

-Sigmund Freud-

A very Freudian definition of neurosis: lack of ability to tolerate what we are and what we are not; that, in fact, everything is and is not. It would be much simpler if everything were fully defined: black or white. And yet, the human does not have that characteristic. To desire the categorical is to desire the impossible.

4. The origin of desire

“Lack generates desire”.

-Jacques Lacan-

Jacques Lacan is perhaps the most cryptic of all the great psychoanalysts. The heading is one of the sentences about Lacanian psychoanalysis. It refers to the concept of “lack” that is crucial in his theory. From that emptiness is where desire arises, in its broad sense. This lack is also the origin of creation, invention and advancement.

5. What you should know about love

“To love is to give what you don’t have to someone who isn’t.”.

-Jacques Lacan-

Lacan defined love as a lure, illusory and at the same time magical. What is intended in love is complete that other that we do not even really know, but rather imagine. We are not capable of doing that, nor does the loved object correspond to the fantasies we create about it.

6. See you in the other

“Everything that irritates us about others leads us to an understanding of ourselves”.

-Carl Jung-

Carl Jung is the author of many of the key phrases in psychoanalysis. In this he refers us to the projection mechanism, an unconscious movement by which we reject in others what we detest in ourselves. The behaviors of others that irritate us are like a mirror to see ourselves more clearly.

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7. Denial and acceptance

“What you deny subjects you, what you accept transforms you. What you resist, persists”.

-Carl Jung-

This phrase masterfully summarizes the dynamic between the conscious and the unconscious. Denying something is a way to give it a more relevant status., to the point that it becomes a guiding force in life. On the other hand, accepting reality frees and allows you to redirect your life. Resistance only leads to entrenchment.

8. Understanding loneliness

“Loneliness does not come from not having people around you, but from not being able to communicate the things that seem important to you, or from maintaining certain points of view that others consider inadmissible.”.

-Carl Jung-

This quote describes the nature of loneliness in a very beautiful way. It is not a physical state, but an inability to tell another what is crucial for one. Likewise, the feeling of being misunderstood, of realizing that one’s own meanings do not find an echo in others.

9. The power of transfer

“What heals is affection: there is no therapy without sympathy”.

-Sandor Ferenczi-

Sandor Ferenczi, another of the greats of psychoanalysis, studied in depth one of the central phenomena of this field: transference.

In therapeutic terms, The most important thing in this space is the bond that is forged between the psychoanalyst and his patient, or between the analyst and the analysand. This reproduces what is repressed and for that reason it is the way to heal.

10. Death is real

“Some reject the loan of life to avoid the debt of death”.

-Otto Rank-

Even if we do not think about it, death is on the horizon of all life. This generates fear and fear, in turn, takes unexpected forms. One of them is, for example, avoid any situation that involves risks, novelty or lack of certainty.