Praxical.Psych
Unit 5 of 20

Psychoanalytic therapies

Understand the tradition that invented the field, on its own terms and on the evidence.

Chapter 2Sessions 9/28–10/2

What you should be able to do afterwards

  • 1Explain the topographic and structural models and what replaced them
  • 2Define transference, countertransference and resistance clinically rather than colloquially
  • 3Describe defense analysis and the sequencing rule
  • 4State the evidence for and against psychodynamic treatment accurately

The reading

Read this system for the phenomena it identified rather than for the metapsychology it built on them. Unconscious processing, defense, transference, resistance, the relationship as agent of change, and the observation that people repeat what they cannot remember are all real and are all used by traditions that would not describe themselves as psychoanalytic.

What belongs to this unit

Questions to take away

For a seminar, a supervisor, or an argument with yourself.

  1. 1What would count as evidence that a transference interpretation was accurate?
  2. 2Is the unconscious of psychoanalysis the same thing as the implicit processing of cognitive science? What turns on the answer?
  3. 3The tradition self-corrected on homosexuality after seventy years. What made that possible, and what made it take so long?

Your notes

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Before you begin

What Praxical.Psych is, and is not

Praxical.Psych is an educational tool. It teaches the theory, evidence base and clinical method of psychotherapy at the level of an advanced survey course, and it lets you rehearse a complete session in a simulator.

It is not medical, clinical, psychological or legal advice. It cannot diagnose or treat anyone, and it does not state the law where you practise — requirements differ by jurisdiction and change. Nothing here creates a clinician–patient or solicitor–client relationship.

  • Every patient, transcript and case in this app is fictional — a composite written for teaching. None depicts a real person.
  • Praxical.Psych is not therapy, not a substitute for supervision, and not a credential. Competence to practise comes from training, supervised hours and licensure.
  • Scores from the instruments here are for learning how they behave. They are not a diagnosis and not a risk assessment, and must not inform a decision about a real person.
  • Do not enter real patient information. Everything you type stays in this browser, but that is not the same as a compliant clinical record system.
If you are in crisis

In the US and Canada, call or text 988. In the UK and Ireland, call 116 123 (Samaritans). Elsewhere, find a local line at findahelpline.com. In immediate danger, use your local emergency number.

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