Dream Interpretation and Psychoanalysis: Peek Into Your Unconscious Mind with Sayoni Mandal
Psychoanalysis or Psychoanalytic Therapy is based upon Sigmund Freud’s theories. Psychoanalysis aims to provide an insight into your unconscious mind through free association, transference, and dream interpretation.
Due to this exploration of unconscious forces, it can often take some time to get to the heart of the matter. However, expert therapists such as Sayoni Mandal can help you in just a few sessions. Through speech insight, she can help you the root cause of your mental health concerns and maladaptive behaviors and thoughts.
Sayoni Mandal, a Psychoanalytically-Oriented Psychotherapist, focuses on the trust between the client and the therapist and aims to provide a non-judgmental, confidential, and safe space for everyone to voice their thoughts, feelings, memories, and emotions.
Q: In your opinion, when should a person approach you for psychoanalytic therapy as opposed to the comparatively short-term CBT (Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy)?
A: The goals of psychoanalysis are different from other modes of therapy, including CBT.
Psychoanalysis helps a person reach a deeper understanding of themselves. It enables individuals to have a healthier relationship with their problems, which in turn enables them to manage things better.
While other modes of therapy focus on what is ‘normal’/normative, the focus of psychoanalysis is the individuality of an individual.
It is important to note that while psychoanalysis takes time, it is not necessarily long-drawn-out. It is possible to see its effects in just a few sessions.
Q: You mention that your English degrees provide insight into people through the words they use. Can you provide some examples of this?
A: Human beings use language to make sense of the world around them. The words we use to describe ourselves, a particular situation, or another individual reveal a lot about how we view those things.
In fact, it is not just the words we use, but the words we forget and the slips-of-the-tongue we make that say a lot about what is on our mind.
In sessions, the meaning of the words we use and forget is deconstructed and reconstructed, and in the process, an individual is led to a deeper understanding of themselves.
Q: Trauma can reveal itself in many different forms. How would you help someone who knows they have gone through a traumatic event but cannot remember what it is?
A: By waiting for them to remember. By giving them a safe space where they feel comfortable enough to talk, and then when they’re ready, I will be listening.
In any therapeutic alliance, trust plays an important role, and this is especially true in case of trauma. This can take time. Which is okay. You can’t make someone speak something they aren’t ready to.
Q: Do you find any gender differences when it comes to dream interpretation?
A: Psychoanalysis is always about the individual. Dreams of an individual make sense only in the larger context of the individual’s experiences and beliefs.
When the focus is on the individual, which is the case in psychoanalysis, gender differences recede into the background.
Q: Any final words for anyone who is in an abusive situation — especially if they are forced to be in lockdown with their abusers?
A: There can’t be any generalized answers in psychoanalysis since there are parameters in everyone’s situation which are unique to them. Without taking them into account, it really isn’t possible, or wise, to make any sweeping generalizations. For some, it might be best to wait. For others, it might be best to leave.
Any decision you take comes with a price, and you have to be willing to pay the price. What psychoanalysis can do is help you figure out which price you are willing to and can pay.
Originally published https://spark.live on August 31, 2020.
