Loving and working as the goal of psychoanalysis

One of the most curious responses, both at a practical and theoretical level within psychoanalytic therapy, is the one that accounts for the direction in which the treatment points.

What is the end of a psychoanalysis? Question posed by himself Sigmund Freud, and since it is a broad task that cannot be explained in one go, in one of the occasions the answer he gave is: "restore to the person his ability to love and work". Two concepts that are quite clear at first glance; but let's see in more depth what is supported by this search and why it has so much relevance in human nature.

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the ability to love

To open the way to the first part of the answer, we will take another famous phrase, which says: "If you love you suffer, if you do not love you are sick." It is worth mentioning that in the context of psychoanalysis, the term disease is marked by the self-perception of each person, according to the vision that you have regarding the existence of certain internal conflicts, to the impediments that you see that exist in your life to be able to access what you want. It is not a denomination that implies measuring mental health according to a standard normality.

So, we can consider that one of the central problems in human life revolves around love, the ability of loving that we have, loving other people or living beings, ourselves, a hobby, a profession, the reality that surrounds us. surrounds. This difficulty in loving is made possible by certain internal conflicts that lead the person to miss reality and the people and things that constitute it. But why does this happen?

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Libido and introversion

In the first place, we must think of love as a psychic energy that covers the things of the world according to a certain interest of the I (which is called libido), whether it corresponds to the conscious or unconscious part of it.

Second, you have to understand that the vast majority of psychic processes occur without our intention (otherwise, we would all be happy just wanting it), in those mechanisms that escape our comprehension we locate as an indication of that deviation a process called introversion, in which the psychic energy is directed inwards and instead of taking her interest outwards, it is retained in the world of fantasies and thoughts.

Now, a new question arises, why does that libido that should be interested in the things of the world retract inside the I? Well, simply because of having experienced frustration in that reality from which you are now trying to escape, the fact of experiencing painful situations or having ideas of suffering from what can happen in a certain future situation, can lead to the occurrence of certain psychic mechanisms that defend us from pain.

We have that purpose of our psyche to protect ourselves from what can harm us; in that protection he withdraws into himself, but since that energy has to be discharged in some action, he takes the world of fantasies as his destiny, and with it a way of achieving those ideas that it is so difficult for him to materialize into reality is generated, since moment it is easier to access the realization of desires through imaginationjust like in dreams.

Going back to the thread that brought us here, we see that the real capacity to love is hampered by these unconscious processes that drag psychic energy inward. Therefore, here is the difficulty in loving, which entails a certain amount of suffering in parallel. The work of therapy is to build what are the ghosts and ideas that revolve around this reality that is presented in an inaccessible and hostile way.

The ability to work

Let us now turn to the second part of the definition, returning the ability to work. At the moment it seems to be just a separate section of the idea, but in reality it is closely related to the search for love.

It turns out that this conception of working does not refer only to the idea that we would have in itself of salaried work; Yes, it is part of the problem, since inhibitions can occur in the ability to produce, but it is amplified in a notable way if we understand it as the possibility of I in modifying reality to get what one wants. We refer both to work in terms of being able to carry out a job that pays us financially, as well as the creation of a reality that is rewarding.

When building something new you always need other people; In the bond that is generated, a bond of friendship, camaraderie, common interests is produced, which, after all, refer to an abstraction of love without necessarily understanding it as something sexual.

As human beings we have three conditions that are common to all civilizations at all times. Throughout history we have always been in partnership with others, generating various bonds and relationships (love), and in that historical time there have always been jobs and activities that are functional to the system in which it was (and we are) immersed. The third condition is the belief in some (os) God (is) that realizes our transcendence in this life, but that analysis will be for another occasion.