Psychoanalysis is both a theory of the mind and a therapeutic method.

As a theory, psychoanalysis represents a very special methodological approach and knowledge, as well as a way of understanding the psychic phenomena, whether these belong to normal psychic life or to psychopathology.

As a therapy method, psychoanalysis addresses itself to people in whom unknown and beyond conscious control psychic processes influence, in a repetitive way, decisions, interpersonal relations, self esteem, and lead to the formation of symptoms like anxiety, depression, phobias etc. The therapeutic aim of psychoanalysis is not limited to symptom relief; it tends at modifying the subject's psychic economy, at finding different solutions for conflics and at oppening to the logic of desires and motivations and the repossession of one's own personal history thread.

As a theory, psychoanalysis developed from the work of S. Freud (1856-1939).

In our century, psychoanalytic thinking has infiltrated psychiatry, psychology and the social sciences to the point that it would be hard to imagine what would the systems of human understanding be today, were theyto be deprived of notions such as the psychic mechanisms of repression, denial or negation , the work of dreaming, the special significance of the interpersonal relationship that develops between analyst and patient etc. Psychoanalytic ideas became sources of inspiration in art, literature, theater and cinema. Furthermore, in recent years, a dialogue developed between psychoanalysis and the positive sciences.