Thesis abstract:

«p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"»«span style="color:#000000"»The main reason for a person to undertake psychoanalytic psychotherapy is psychological pain and the desire to be relieved of that pain. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy, although comprised of a number of schools which differ in their theory and practice, nonetheless have as their modus operandi the understanding that it is the relationship with the therapist, in whatever form it is conceptualised, that effects change. In his essay on Freud, the philosopher Paul Ricoeur writes: ‘what nourishes analysis is always a debate between consciousnesses’ (Ricoeur, 1970, p.61). Also in common is the understanding that this change is, as a rule, transformative. By this is meant that the process of therapy involves a fundamental shift in the person’s lived experience, not just a superficial alteration of certain symptoms.«/span»«/p» «p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"» «/p» «p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"»«span style="color:#000000"»This thesis will examine the transformative processes of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. It will focus on theories which attempt to understand what occurs when a person’s lived experience undergoes transformation. It will review the recent theory developed by the philosopher, L.A.Paul, and also review the theories of emergent, transformational change put forward by Jonathan Lear, Bernard Lonergan and Paul Ricoeur. It will then be seen how these theories can be applied to the process of psychoanalytic psychotherapy to understand how transformative change is brought about. «/span»«/p» «p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"» «/p»