Psychoanalysis is the oldest form of psychotherapy work and is less often used today as a pose to newer more affective methods, this is because of the time period it can take for it to be affective it demands a lot of the patients time and so there fore a lot of their money as well. It was mainly developed through out the early 20th Century by the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud and stemmed from his studies on hypnotherapy. A lot of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis work was regarding the interpretations of dreams and unlocking unconscious thoughts then being able to talk through these blocked thoughts and eventually stopping any signs of the problems. Unlike other forms of psychotherapy it is not usually used to work through a crisis but is used for the aftermath of the original crisis to try and work through any feelings that could cause a relapse in their negative feelings. With this type of therapy there is a certain procedure that is followed this standard, traditional procedure involves;

- The technique – The most common misconception is that all psychotherapies involve the patient lying down on a coach and talking for hours on end about everything that has gone wrong in their lives since the start, however, with the length of time the sessions take and the number of areas covered in the sessions it is a fairly accurate perception of this traditional form of therapy. Basically through the sessions the analyst listens mostly to the patients thoughts, dreams and feelings and only ever makes a comment when they feel, in their professional opinion, there is a need for insight into what they could mean or be caused by. In order for the patient to open completely to the analyst there needs to be a feeling of trust and connection between the two of them. The idea of the coach is to create a relaxed feeling in the room so the patient can become fully relaxed and some times go into a trance like state thus allowing them to speak freely about their feelings and thoughts that may have in the past troubled them. It has been found that over time when the patient feels comfortable enough to speak about how they feel and think once they have discussed an issue that has bothered them for a time they no longer have a problem with it, and are from then on no longer troubled by it.

- Efficiency – This process has proven to work but only with specific types of people for example it would work well for some one that has overcome a drug dependency but would not work well for some one that has a drug dependency and was trying to give up the drug. The amount of time it takes for the therapy to be completed varies widely between each person; this variation can be as wide as 2 – 7 years for two different people with similar symptoms or problems.