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Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods based on the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud. As a technique of psychotherapy psychoanalysis seeks to elucidate connections among unconscious components of patients' mental processes. The analyst's goal is to help liberate the analysand from unexamined or unconscious barriers of transference and resistance - that is, past patterns of relatedness that are no longer serviceable or that inhibit freedom.

Controversy rages both within and without the psychoanalytic community over whether psychoanalysis is a science, a pseudoscience, or something else altogether.

Psychoanalysis was first devised in Vienna in the 1890s by Sigmund Freud, a neurologist interested in finding an effective treatment for patients with neurotic or hysterical symptoms. As a result of talking with these patients, Freud came to believe that their problems stemmed from culturally unacceptable, thus repressed and unconscious, desires and fantasies of a sexual nature. As his theory developed, Freud developed and cast aside a myriad of different frameworks to model and explain the phenomena he encountered in treating his patients.

Prominent current schools of psychoanalysis include:
ego psychology, which emphasizes defense mechanisms and unconscious fantasies;
self psychology, which emphasizes the development of a stable sense of self through mutually empathic contacts with other humans;
Lacanian psychoanalysis, which integrates psychoanalysis with semiotics and Hegelian philosophy;
analytical psychology, which has a more spiritual approach;
object relations theory, which stresses the dynamics of one's relationships with internal, fantasized, others;
interpersonal psychoanalysis, which accents the nuances of interpersonal interactions; and
relational psychoanalysis, which combines interpersonal psychoanalysis with object-relations theory.

Although these schools have dramatically different theories, most of them continue to stress the strong influence of self-deception and the influence a person's past has on their current mental life.

Today psychoanalytic ideas are imbedded in the culture, especially in childcare, education, literary criticism, and in psychiatry, particularly medical and non-medical psychotherapy. Though there is a mainstream of evolved analytic ideas, there are groups who more specifically follow the precepts of one or more of the later theoreticians.

The basic method of psychoanalysis is the transference and resistance analysis of free association. The patient, in a relaxed posture, is directed to say whatever comes to mind. Dreams, hopes, wishes, and fantasies are of interest, as are recollections of early family life. Generally the analyst simply listens, making comments only when, in his or her professional judgment, an opportunity for insight on the part of the patient arises. In listening, the analyst attempts to maintain an attitude of empathic neutrality, a nonjudgmental stance designed to create a safe environment. The analyst asks that the analysand speak with utter honesty about whatever comes to awareness while interpreting the patterns and inhibitions that appear in the patient's speech and other behavior.

Many clinicians hold that psychoanalysis counter-indicated in cases of serious psychological disruption, such as psychosis, suicidal depression, or severe untreated alcoholism. Such patients may be labeled "un-analyzable". More typical applications include treatment of clinical depression and personality disorders.

Some more recent forms of psychoanalysis seek, among other things, to help patients gain self-esteem through greater trust of the self, overcome the fear of death and its effects on current behavior, and maintain several relationships that appear to be incompatible.

Although single-client sessions remain the norm, psychoanalysis has been adapted as a form of group therapy by Harry Stack Sullivan and others.

Currently, most psychoanalysts claim that analysis is most useful as a method in cases of neurosis and with character or personality problems. Psychoanalysis is believed to be most useful in dealing with ingrained problems of intimacy and relationship and for those problems in which established patterns of life are problematic. As a therapeutic treatment, psychoanalysis generally takes three to five meetings a week and requires the amount of time for natural or normal maturational change (three to seven years).

Analysis of previous randomised controlled trials have suggested that psychoanalytic treatment is more effective than the absence of treatment in specific psychiatric disorders.  Empirical research on the efficacy of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy has also become prominent among psychoanalytic researchers.

Research on psychodynamic treatment of some populations shows mixed results. Research by analysts such as Bertram Karon and colleagues at Michigan State University had suggested that when trained properly, psychodynamic therapists can be effective with schizophrenic patients. More recent research casts doubt on these claims. The Schizophrenia Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT)report argues in its Recommendaton 22 against the use of psychodynamic therapy in cases of schizophrenia, noting that more trials are necessary to verify its effectiveness. However, it has been noted that the PORT recommendation is based on the opinions of clinicians rather than on empirical data, and empirical data exist that contradict this recommendation.link to abstract A review of current medical literature in The Cochrane Library, (the updated abstract of which is available online) reached the conclusion that no data exist supporting the view that psychodynamic psychotherapy is effective in treating schizophrenia. Further, data also suggest that psychoanalysis is not effective (and possibly even detrimental) in the treatment of sex offenders

Although psychoanalytic treatment used to be expensive, cost today ranges from as low as ten dollars a session (with an analytic candidate in training at an institute) to over 250 dollars a session with a senior training analyst.

Length of treatment varies. Some psychodynamic approaches, such as Brief Relational Therapy (BRT), Brief Psychodynamic Therapy (BPT), and Time-Limited Dynamic Therapy (TLDP) limit treatment to 20-30 sessions. Full-fledged psychoanalysis, however, generally lasts longer- with an average of 5.7 years, according to a recent survey. Which treatment length is optimal depends on the individual's needs. Managed care has placed increased pressure on psychotherapy in general to restrict time devoted to patients.

In addition to the greater length and frequency of treatment, one factor driving the cost of psychoanalysis in the United States has been the restrictive admissions policies of most training institutes, which has limited the supply of professionals available to meet demand. In Europe and Latin America, although psychoanalysis is sometimes perceived as an indulgence of the bourgeoisie, it is still more generally available and affordable than in the US.