Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is the kind of therapy that closely follows Freud's own dynamic model of mind, both in theory and in practice. This book serves as a guide for prospective and beginning patients of psychotherapeutic intervention of the particular kind known as psychoanalytic or psychodynamic psychotherapy.

First and foremost this book is written to serve as a guide for prospective and beginning patients of psychotherapeutic intervention of the particular kind known as psychoanalytic or psychodynamic psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy (hereafter also referred to simply as psychotherapy) is the kind of therapy that most closely follows Freud's own dynamic model of mind, both in theory and in practice. This is so despite its important differences from Freud, which we will also be detailing (the title of the book echoes a famous work by Freud).