An interpretation is the primary intervention and mechanism of therapeutic change in Freudian psychoanalysis. As psychoanalysis evolved into separate schools of thought and further branched off into psychoanalytic or psychodynamic psychology as well as relational psychoanalysis, the definition of an interpretation broadened from its original sense, and the mechanisms of change in psychoanalysis or psychodynamic therapy expanded as well. Interpretations are utterances that a psychoanalyst or therapist makes to patients to provide a variety of functions, and they are defined differently depending on the brand of psychoanalytic theory.

Freudian Views

According to Sigmund Freud, interpretations are psychoanalytic interventions that make the unconscious conscious. Psychoanalytic theory posits that disturbing thoughts, desires, and experiences are often outside of conscious awareness yet influence behavior and conscious mental functioning. Freud ...

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