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[[Psychoanalysis]] is the [[theory]] and [[practice]] initiated by [[Sigmund Freud]] -- founded on the discovery of the [[unconscious]].
[[Freud]] distinguishes between [[psychoanalysis]] as
# a method for investigating [[unconscious]] mental processes,
# a method for treating neurotic disorders, and
# a set of theories about the mental processes revealed by the psychoanalytic method of investigation and treatment.<ref>{{F}} "Two Encyclopaedia Articles." 1923. SE XVIII. p.235</ref>
[[Lacan]] trained initially as a [[psychiatrist]], and turned to [[psychoanalysis]] to help him with his [[psychiatric]] research.
This then led [[Lacan]] to train as a [[psychoanalyst]] himself in the 1930s.
From then on, until his [[death]] in 1981, he dedicated himself to practicing as an [[analyst]] and developing [[psychoanalytic theory]].
In the process, [[Lacan]] constructed a highly original way of discussing [[psychoanalysis]] which both reflected and determined an original way of conducting the [[treatment]]; in this sense it is thus possible to speak of a specifically [[Lacanian]] form of [[psychoanalytic treatment]].
However, [[Lacan]] never admits that he has created a distinctive "[[Lacanian]]" form of [[psychoanalysis]].
On the contrary, when he describes his own approach to [[psychoanalysis]], he speaks only of "[[psychoanalysis]]," thus implying that his own approach is the only authentic form of [[psychoanalysis]], the only one which is truly in line with [[Freud]]'s approach.
Thus the three major non-[[Lacanian]] [[school]]s of [[psychoanalytic theory]] ([[Kleinian psychoanalysis]], [[Ego-psychology]], [[Object-relations theory]]) are all, in [[Lacan]]'s view, deviations from authentic [[psychoanalysis]] whose errors his own [[return to Freud]] is designed to correct.
--
From the very beginning, [[Lacan]] argues that [[psychoanalytic theory]] is a [[scientific]] rather than a [[religious]] mode of [[discourse]], with a specific object.
Attempts to apply concepts developed in psychoanalytic theory to other objects cannot claim to be doing "applied psychoanalysis," since [[psychoanalytic theory]] is not a general master discourse but the theory of a specific situation.{{Ec}} p.747</ref>
[[Psychoanalysis]] is an autonomous discipline; it may borrow concepts from many other disciplines, but this doe snotmeant that it is dependent on any of them, since it reworks these concepts in a unique way.
Thus psychoanalysis is not a brance of [[psychology]], nor of medicine, nor of [[philosophy]], nor of [[linguistics]], and it is certainly not a form of psychotherapy, since its aim is not to "cure" but to articulate truth.
==See Also==
* [[Practice]]
* [[Theory]]
* [[Unconscious]]
==References==
<references/>
psychoa'nalysis. Also with hyphen and (rare) as psychanalysis. [ad. Fr. psychoanalyse (S. Freud 1896, in Rev. Neurologique IV. 166): see psycho- and analysis. Freud earlier used psychische analyse and klinischpsychologische analyse (Neurol. Centralbl. (1894) XIII. 364). ]
