Popular Diagnoses: A Common Language for Labeling Malaise

There are as many reasons for seeking psychoanalytic care as there are people who have been in analysis. While each person’s motive to enter treatment is ultimately unique, there are a number of commonly uttered psychological terms that many individuals use to describe their personal concerns when they first inquire about treatment—and which psychoanalysis can be used to productively explore, elaborate, and shift. Some of the most typical terms of this kind that I’ve heard individual patients use—and which I’ve worked with them to process—are “anxiety,” “depression,” “trauma,” “anger problems,” “eating disorders,” and “addiction.” When couples have shown up in my office, they’ve enlisted support in dealing with issues they describe as “conflict avoidance,” “work-life imbalances,” and “mismatched libidos.” Then there are the families who have sought help with a child’s “conduct disorder,” “speech pathology,” “learning disability,” “autism,” or other forms of “neurovariance.”