To treat the psychological disorders caused due to conflict between the unconscious and the conscious mind, Freud developed methods to access the repressed thought, memories, and feelings in one’s unconscious and subject them to a series of analytical sessions. The psychoanalysts believe that the unconscious consists of everything that has been repressed due to societal pressures, and the patients are therefore reluctant to disclose their contents.
Initially, Freud and his colleagues tried to access the unconscious through hypnosis. But later discovered that methods such as free association and dreams were useful ways to uncover the unconscious. In the process of psychoanalytic therapy, therapists and patients explore the memories and thoughts lying dormant in the unconscious, identifying the repressed ideas that are the most powerful. Once these ideas are brought out into the open, they can then be subjected to scrutiny, revealing the hidden causes behind the psychological conflict with the consciousness and resolving them.