Is psychoanalysis for me?

All animals have impulses, something that calls them to action, triggered by sensations in the body. These impulses are called “instincts.” Animals’ instincts are essential to their survival and procreation: feeling hunger, thirst, cold, heat, fear, and seeking to mate are examples. If they did not exist, animals themselves would not exist.

But human beings have a characteristic that sets them apart from other animals — and I'm not talking about thinking, after all, we don't know if animals don't think. Humans, unlike others, seek pleasure, even when it's not directly linked to survival.

If we feel thirsty, we don’t just drink water. We want a fruit juice, a tangerine soda with ice, a soda from that famous brand, a Malbec wine from Argentina, a craft beer… We try to satisfy our hunger by eating, but it’s not just about eating — and not only when we’re hungry. We also want to eat that delicious, very expensive pizza that’s only available at that pizzeria on the other side of town, that reminds us of our childhood and has a flavor we’ll never forget.

Human beings want more. As the song "Comida" by Titãs says:

Drink is water

Food is pasture

What are you thirsty for?

What are you hungry for?

We are not just thirsty or just hungry. We are thirsty and hungry for something.

We live behind what gives pleasure and run away from what causes displeasure.

We work because we have to, of course, but we always try to find work that brings us some pleasure, to mix obligation with something that makes sense to us. Still, if we could choose, perhaps we would prefer to be lying in a hammock, watching the sunset.

The problem is that we can’t always avoid suffering. Sometimes, without understanding why, we repeat situations that hurt us: we enter into the same bad relationships, make the same bad decisions, react in ways that only harm ourselves or those we love. We suffer and we don’t know why. We feel anger, fear, envy, guilt, and we can’t explain where it comes from.

Other times, suffering appears in the body: headaches, back pain, digestive problems, symptoms that seem to have no explanation. There are also those who feel persecuted, who hear voices, who have the sensation of living in another world.

Human beings are complicated. And when something like this happens, it’s hard to find a way out. Many people spend their entire lives stuck in the same mistakes, as if there were a part of them inside that makes decisions without their consent. It’s as if there were a “hidden self” that suddenly appears, causes damage, and then disappears, leaving a trail of pain.

We try to solve it. We seek help. But we have the feeling that this “mysterious self” hides in an inaccessible corner of our mind — and, after a while, everything starts to repeat itself again.

This happens because our mind is not made up only of the conscious part — the one that is here, reading this text, understanding what is written. There is also an unconscious part, where our deepest conflicts, unprocessed pains, fears, repetitions live.

In the late 19th century, a man realized that many people suffered exactly like this. He dedicated his life to understanding what was hidden behind these symptoms and created a technique to access this hidden part of the mind.

This technique is called Psychoanalysis. And the man who invented it was Sigmund Freud.

When two people meet and, through psychoanalysis, a space for speaking and listening is created, it becomes possible to look into one's own history, understand what previously seemed inaccessible, and give a name to what was repeated in the dark. And little by little, something is reorganized. Symptoms lose strength, life gains space. It is possible to suffer less, or at least, to suffer in a more dignified way, as Contardo Calligaris would say.

So when someone asks, "Is psychoanalysis for me?", the answer is simple: yes. Because, just like psychoanalysis, you are human.