Psychoanalysis in English in Seoul: What It Is and What to Expect

Some difficulties don’t end when the symptoms ease. A similar hurt returns in a similar relationship. An anxiety with no clear cause comes back, year after year, in a new city.

‘I understand my pattern. I just can’t seem to stop repeating it.’
‘I’ve had therapy before. This time, I want to go deeper.’

Psychoanalysis is a treatment for this kind of difficulty. At Dr. Jahng’s Psychiatric Clinic in Seoul, it is provided by a psychiatrist who is also an IPA psychoanalyst — and it can be carried out in English.

What is psychoanalysis?

Psychoanalysis is a talking treatment that works with the deeper parts of the mind — the unconscious. This is where it differs from general counselling.

What lies in the unconscious is often not light or comfortable enough to recall easily, so it can be hard to observe on your own. Through an ongoing dialogue, patient and analyst try to understand these parts of the mind together and work through long-standing pain and conflict.

The understanding sought in psychoanalysis is not intellectual knowledge but experience. Just as you cannot learn to swim from a book, understanding your own mind requires emotional experience. Feelings that once seemed too dangerous or impossible to face can be experienced more safely within the treatment relationship, and through repeating that experience, you gradually become able to understand your own mind and manage your feelings yourself.

Four ideas at the heart of psychoanalysis

• The unconscious — the part of the mind you are not clearly aware of, but which can shape your feelings, actions and relationships. The mind is often compared to an iceberg: above the water are the thoughts and feelings you know; below lie memories, wishes, fears and conflicts you have not yet fully noticed.
• Resistance — the mind’s movement away from thoughts and feelings that are uncomfortable or painful. Rather than a mere obstacle, it is understood as a way you have protected yourself.
• Defence mechanisms — the ways the mind shields itself from feelings and conflicts that are hard to bear. The aim is not to remove them, but to understand when and why they were needed.
• Transference — feelings and expectations formed in important past relationships that are repeated in present relationships, including the relationship with the analyst. Looking at it can help you understand the way your mind repeats itself in relationships.

Some feelings are so uncomfortable that they are pushed deep into the mind. But they do not disappear. They may return as the same feelings in similar relationships, or as anxiety and avoidance that are hard to explain. Understanding the unconscious is not about uncovering a hidden right answer. It is closer to coming to know what you have not yet been able to put into words, and widening the way you see yourself and others. You can read more about this in why the same things keep happening (in Korean).

How does psychoanalytic treatment unfold?

• First consultation — you talk about what is hardest now, when it began and the situations in which similar problems recur. The severity of symptoms, daily functioning, past treatment and current medication are also reviewed. Dr. Jahng explains whether medication, psychoanalytic treatment or both may be appropriate, and treatment goals are set together.
• Free association — the analyst does not set every topic in advance. You speak as openly as you can about what comes to mind: thoughts and feelings, recent experiences, memories and dreams. Stories that seem unrelated at first may, over time, reveal recurring patterns.
• Understanding — the recurring ways of feeling and relating are explored across many sessions. Rather than stopping at intellectual insight, you experience these feelings within the treatment relationship and gradually come to see your reactions differently.
• Ending — treatment is brought to a close after the goals, the changes so far and plans for afterwards have been fully discussed.

Psychoanalysis is not a process in which the analyst hands over answers. Patient and analyst take part together, and the work requires time and consistent participation. There is no single length of treatment that applies to everyone.

What kind of change can psychoanalysis bring?

People often say that people don’t change. Yet in her practice, Dr. Jahng has seen patients’ views of themselves and the world shift through analysis, relationships improve and a healthy sense of self-worth return. It can be a move from a life stalled in chronic emptiness and low motivation toward a life that feels more like one’s own.

Dr. Jahng sees one important change as becoming free from the pressure to remove every flaw and be perfect — and experiencing yourself, as you are, as enough.

These are changes Dr. Jahng has observed in her practice. They do not mean everyone will experience the same results or reach them in the same time.

Why it matters that your analyst is also a psychiatrist

Dr. Jahng is both a specialist in psychiatry and an IPA psychoanalyst. The two roles look at the same difficulty from different sides.

• As a psychiatrist, she assesses and treats mental difficulties medically — the severity and duration of symptoms, changes in daily life, possible physical causes, other conditions that can look similar and the effects of medication you are taking — and considers medication when needed.
• As a psychoanalyst, she explores the movements of the unconscious and the recurring emotional and relational patterns that are hard to notice on your own, and what those repetitions mean in your life.

This means you do not need to decide in advance whether your difficulty is “medical” or “psychological”. When symptoms are severe, medication can come first; once things are more stable, psychoanalytic treatment can begin, or the two can continue together. The two perspectives complement each other and form the basis for understanding one person’s difficulties more deeply.

What it takes to become an IPA psychoanalyst

The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) is the international organisation for psychoanalysis, founded by Sigmund Freud in 1910.

Training as a psychoanalyst involves more than studying theory. It includes a personal analysis, in which the trainee examines their own mind, and the supervision of clinical cases. While learning to understand others, the analyst continues to reflect on their own responses.

Dr. Jahng completed both the Advanced Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program of the Korean Psychoanalytic Society and psychoanalytic training with the IPA, and is a full member of the IPA. She has served as General Affairs Director and Education Director of the Korean Psychoanalytic Society, and is an adjunct professor of psychiatry at The Catholic University of Korea and Sungkyunkwan University.

Psychoanalysis in English with Dr. Jahng

Having lived in an English-speaking country during childhood, Dr. Jahng offers both forms of psychoanalytic treatment in English.

• Psychoanalysis — generally four sessions a week, for sustained, in-depth exploration of recurring patterns and unconscious conflicts.
• Psychoanalytic psychotherapy — generally one to three sessions a week, with more focus on current symptoms and life difficulties.

Apart from the language, the approach is the same. Which form suits you, and how often to meet, is discussed in light of your current difficulties, the changes you hope for and your practical circumstances.

For opening hours, location and how to enquire, see the English Consultation page. If you are new to mental health care in Korea, Seeing a Psychiatrist in Korea as a Foreigner covers referrals, health insurance and medication from home. The full Korean guide to treatment is on the psychoanalysis page.