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The term "[[treatment]]" designates the ''[[practice]]'' of [[psychoanalysis]] -- as opposed to the ''[[theory]]'' of [[psychoanalysis]].

The term has a specific meaning in [[psychoanalytic theory]] which is quite different from the way it is understood in [[psychiatry|medicine]].

In particular, the [[end of analysis|aim]] of [[treatment|psychoanalytic treatment]] is not to "heal" or "cure" the [[analysand]], in the sense of developing a perfectly healthy [[psyche]].

The [[end of analysis|aim]] of [[treatment|psychoanalytic treatment]] is to lead the [[analysand]] to articulate this [[truth]].

The [[treatment]] is a [[progress|process]] with a definite direction, a ''[[structural]] [[progress]]ion'' with a beginning, middle, and end.

The ''beginning'', or "point of entry into the analytic situation", is a ''contract'', or "''pact''", between the [[analyst]] and the [[analysand]] which includes the [[analysand]]'s agreement to abide by the [[fundamental rule]].

# They permit the [[analyst]] to ascertain whether or not there is really a demand for [[psychoanalysis]], and also to hypothesize about the [[clinical]] [[structure]] of the [[analysand]].

After the preliminary interviews, the [[treatment]] is no longer conducted face to face, but with the [[analysand]] reclining on a couch while the [[analyst]] sits behind him, out of the [[analysand]]'s field of vision (the couch is not used in the [[treatment]] of [[psychotic]] [[patient]]s).

As he [[free associates]], the [[analysand]] works through the [[signifier]]s that have determined him in his [[history]], and is driven by the very process of [[speech]] itself to articulate something of his [[desire]].

This is a dynamic process which involves a conflict between a force which drives the [[treatment]] on (see [[transference]], [[desire of the analyst]]) and an opposing force which blocks the process (see [[resistance]]).