The Spectrum of Psychoanalytic Therapies: For the Person Behind the Diagnosis

Therapies based on psychoanalytic theory and practice are individualized to the unique needs of each patient. They are best viewed on a continuum, a spectrum of approaches that are modulated according to the difficulties and the character structure of each person as they manifest themselves at that moment in the person's history. As people change over the course of treatment, the treatment modality may evolve accordingly. The many elements of a psychoanalytically based therapy move along that continuum in a way better calibrated on an analogic curve than on a digital scale with discrete gradations. This requires that the analyst or therapist be attuned to the subtle shifts in the dynamic equilibrium of the patient's mental life. Psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy are distinct macro ways to categorize and code for psychoanalytically derived treatments that operate at different but overlapping micro ranges of the analogic continuum.