Analysand

An analysand is a patient who is the subject of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is a long-term treatment strategy that utilizes frequent meetings with the analyst and stream of consciousness and free association as means of understanding and evaluating a patient's reactions and emotional structure.

This is accomplished through an evaluation and interpretation of the client's free associations, dreams and fantasies that come up during sessions. This attention to the details that arise from the client's subconscious mind is believed to display the unconscious conflicts that cause the patient's symptoms and character problems. Once these conflicts are identified the analyst can can confront and clarify the patient's defenses, guilt, and wishes as well as resistances and transferences. Traditionally, Freudian psychoanalysis is an extremely lengthy and time-consuming process. Later psychologists and psychiatrists have sought methods of treatment that are briefer and more effective.