Psychoanalysis: A Tool For Self-Discovery

As a reader of philosophy, I have always been drawn to psychoanalysis. In recent decades, this therapy has been downplayed by North American academia for lack of evidence. Further, Freud’s Oedipus complex is a touchy subject for most.?

But the questions posed by psychoanalysis are fascinating, and can provide a unique window into ourselves. Inquiry into? past experiences of childhood, and perhaps even sexual development can reveal fundamental truths about one’s self.

This is because our expectations of what happens in our present relationships are forged by the experiences we’ve had in our earliest relationships (i.e. our relationship with our parents in childhood).? As a result, we don’t relate to others in an objective sense. Instead, we see them through the lens of our own experience.?

This can have profound effects on our everyday lives. Ask yourself: Do you tend to handle relationships in a certain way? Do you have patterns in life that continue to haunt you, regardless of how much you want to break from them??

Oftentimes, we’re not even aware of the patterns that play out repeatedly in our lives.?

Psychoanalysis is based on this principle assertion, that the nature of our human condition is that we don’t fully know ourselves.? Since these unconscious realities aren’t fully under our control, we find ourselves repeating the same patterns of behaviors and actions. These patterns are usually as invisible to us as water is to a fish; It’s the fabric of the reality we inhabit, and we don’t naturally perceive or question its very presence.

The goal of psychoanalytic therapy is to bring these hidden and unconscious realities into our conscious awareness not just in a cognitive way, but in a deeper, emotional lived way so it makes a difference – a difference where you are not doomed to repeat patterns that no longer serve you.

If anything, psychoanalysis is a great tool to mine your “Self” and to progress towards self discovery. After all, you cannot master yourself if you don’t know your inner self. In addition, the degree to which you know yourself is the degree to which you can know others and relate to them well.

I recently came across the work of Dr Jonathan Shedler, whose practice of psychodynamic therapy leans heavily on psychoanalytic thought. I have come to appreciate his ability to distill complex psychoanalytic concepts into more accessible definitions.??

In particular, these 9 concepts of psychoanalysis are especially helpful for getting to know ourselves better.?

Moral Masochism

For some people, their? self esteem is tied up with how much suffering they endure. This person may feel they have greater moral virtue than others, having deprived themselves of common privileges or by denying fulfillment, resulting in victimhood. They may also feel morally superior in their willful martyrdom, which they feel is for the sake of others. Such a person is incentivized to stay deprived so they can continue to feel superior.?

When one has higher degrees of this malady, it manifests itself as burnout or depression, and results in relational isolation. Unless the motivations of the person’s victim mentality are uncovered, a therapist’s sympathetic or compassionate efforts will fall on deaf ears.

Internalized Guilt

While a moral masochist finds their worth in suffering, others may feel guilty for not suffering enough. If those around them are suffering more than they are, they may feel? inferior or less of a person than others. We often see this exhibited in survivor’s guilt.?

Internalized guilt can also be a result of a parent’s efforts to instill gratefulness, such as when a child is told, “Eat your vegetables because there are starving children with nothing to eat.” Instead of inspiring thankfulness, this may just result in guilt over having one’s needs met.?

False Self

When a person has not had an opportunity to discover themselves, they tend to exhibit a false self. This happens when? they’ve had to mold themselves to serve a parent’s need instead of completing the healthy process of self-formation. Such a person is often very ambitious and high-achieving, yet an emptiness pervades their very being. They may be driven more by the fear of failing than by a love of their work.?

Those living behind this false self struggle to discover who they are and what is meaningful to them independent of serving a function to someone else.

Transference

Transference happens when a person punishes someone in a present relationship for an offense incurred when they? were growing up. This dynamic is extremely common, as humans have a habit of transferring our early childhood patterns, fears, desires, and needs into the present.?

You can confirm transference when you’ve had a Deja Vous experience in your relationship. Have you ever wondered why certain things always “happen” to you? Or why your? friendships or relationships always end the same way? If so, you may want to examine how transference is at play.

Paranoia

In its simplest form, paranoia occurs when one fears they’re under irrational threat of harm from others. In a less obvious form, one tends to find an unusual behavior or an unusual manner revealed by the person around them at a particular “event” or a situation. Such a person wonders, “why did that friend or acquaintance behave that way?”, attributing their “unusual” behavior directly to them.?

This can cause a snowball effect in which the paranoid person becomes either overprotective or hostile towards the other, potentially drawing them both into a cycle of paranoid behaviors.?

Projective Identification

When we have unacknowledged and unresolved feelings, our inner selves sometimes project them onto another person in an attempt to deny the feelings and prove their existence within us. This is especially obvious when someone projects their unresolved anger or rage onto someone else by treating them badly, eliciting anger and then accusing them of rage.?

The usual cause of this is the suppression of something unacceptable residing in the person, like anger or hostility. This is when denial takes over, and projects these feelings onto someone else, causing those feelings to appear in the other person so that the projection ‘comes true’.???

This tends to show up more in intimate relationships than in a professional setting. If you’ve found yourself (or your partner) practicing projection, this is a great book for understanding this dynamic and finding healthy resolution.?

Splitting

When a person insists on perceiving another as either purely good or purely evil, they’re ‘splitting’ them into a definite ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ category as a one dimensional being. Many times, the world itself is seen only in terms of black and white.?

The concept of object constancy can shed some light on why this happens. In our childhood, we tend to have varied experiences with our mother or care-giver. The mother who accidentally pricks us with a diaper pin is the same mother who feeds us and keeps us safe.? As we develop a more complete understanding that the care-giver who is capable of causing pain is also capable of providing safety and love, maturity is achieved.?

When this concept of “object constancy” is not fully established, whether through abuse or unfortunate circumstance, we tend to exhibit splitting more frequently than normal in our adult lives.?

Splitting may also extend beyond individuals, and show up by associating a group with being completely good or totally immoral.?

Reaction Formation

This happens when a person masks their underlying feelings and attitudes by expressing their opposite to an exaggerated degree. For example, one may express exaggerated admiration and approval towards a person they secretly look down on.?

In some cases, one can have an unwanted or forbidden interest in something, however vehemently they try to disavow it, to the point of leading a crusade against it.

Displacement

Displacement occurs when a feeling that originates in one place is expressed in another place. The feeling is still there, but it’s directed at something other than its source. Feelings are shifted from one person in a situation to a different, safer one.?

Do you see any of these tendencies in your own life? We all have patterns and problems that can benefit from some self-examination. The above concepts can be utilized to see to what level and degree we exhibit these dynamics.?

This certainly can give us some clues into our unconscious – the mental life within all of us that can trip us up or sabotage the progress we could be making in our lives.?

When we use psychoanalysis as a tool to evaluate ourselves, we can bring awareness into our conscious life so we can act with agency.