Through an in-depth look at the inner workings of psychoanalysis, and a look into the logic of CBT, we are able to compare the two. While CBT will work for some with its more practical focus, others will benefit more from psychoanalysis’ deep look into the peculiarities of our psyches and the unconscious, writes Denise Cullington.

Based on his observations of himself, his dreams and impulses, and on his work with patients, Freud discovered a part of mind that was not available to logical scrutiny, it was the unconscious.

This includes what is less available because it stems from earliest experience, before there were words in which to ‘think’. But, Freud argued, the unconscious also stems from feelings which are shameful, conflictual – and we expend energy in pushing such disturbing feelings from our minds. We may experience anxieties and bodily symptoms, but we no longer know what it is that disturbs us.

Even when early experience is good enough, we are inevitably faced with conflict. We want to have our mother (or primary carer) all to ourselves. We are jealous when she pays attention elsewhere. We want to be ‘his Majesty the baby’. The one and only. Ways of managing such feelings can be by repressing them and by projecting them, seeing them in another, subtly nudging them and criticising them.