/sci/ - Science & Math

>>9841330 cont
Psychoanalysis is a technique of listening to oneself. The analyst doesn't go on guessing on what anything of what you say means or something like that, like some people think. It's you that bring out the meaning of what you're saying. The analyst mainly knows how to listen to you without reproducing normal reactions of approval and disapproval. This is frustrating because that's mostly what we are after, but in this failure you begin to listen to your own words.

What the analyst does is to "fish" some of your words out and connect them, questioning you about those relations. In this way, it is about everything, all relationships, things of the past, expectations of the future, dreams, fantasies, desires, deep life questions or mundane shit that bothers you and you don't know why. You are not required anything other than to talk about whatever and that's enough for it to work. You begin to understand how your own thoughts work by its own logic and discover how it is possible for that to change (not easy, but possible).

The best part though, imo, is that what you learn there stays with you for life. It's not just about what's going on today (in life or in your body), but it helps with building an emotional maturity that you just know that can be useful 20, 30, 50 years from now to help you deal with problems you don't even have yet. That's why it takes so god damn long and it's such a slow process, sometimes it feels like you're getting worse, but then you see it's a necessary dive for you to get deeper into your issue and rise with a different mindset. It also has helped me deal with other people's problems as well, because the listening logic of psychoanalysis helps you listen to others with a different kind of respect. I've had depressed gfs, friends, relatives and I've noticed a great improvement on how to talk to them and how to help them myself (within what's possible, of course).

cont