Psychoanalysis is a therapeutic approach and theory founded by Sigmund Freud that seeks to explore the unconscious mind to uncover repressed feelings and desires. The basic tenets of psychoanalysis include:

• Unconscious mind: The primary assumption of psychoanalysis is the belief that all people possess unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires, and memories. According to Freud, neurotic problems in later life are a product of repressed memories and feelings from childhood.

• Instinctual drives: Human behavior and cognition are largely determined by instinctual drives that are rooted in the unconscious.

• Transference: This is the patients constellation of conscious and unconscious thoughts and feelings about the psychoanalyst that derive from his earliest relationships with parents. Specific features of the psychoanalytic situation are designed to evoke unconscious fantasies from childhood that have organized the intrapsychic relationship of self to important others.

• Defense mechanisms: Any thought, emotion, action, and symptom may be used defensively. When defenses fail to contain painful emotions such as anxiety or when defenses are employed too rigidly, the result is evident as symptoms, inhibitions, and other forms of psychopathology.

• Catharsis: Psychoanalytic therapy aims to create the right sort of conditions so that the patient can bring these conflicts into the conscious mind, where they can be addressed and dealt with. It is only by having a cathartic (i.e., healing) experience can the person be helped and "cured".

Psychoanalysis has its own technical terms that help clarify how psychoanalysts think about their work. Some of the most important of these terms include the dynamic unconscious, transference, and defense mechanisms. Freuds ideas about the unconscious mind, defense mechanisms, and the influence of early experiences continue to shape modern psychology. While some aspects of Freuds work have been refined or challenged, psychoanalysis remains valuable for understanding human behavior, emotions, and relationships.