Psychotherapy is the umbrella term for talking therapies of every kind. Psychoanalysis is one specific tradition within it, originating with Freud, typically long-term and focused on unconscious processes and early experience. All psychoanalysis is psychotherapy; most psychotherapy is not psychoanalysis.
The core difference
A field and one school within it.
- psychotherapy — the broad category: cognitive behavioural therapy, humanistic, systemic, psychodynamic and more.
- psychoanalysis — the Freudian tradition; intensive, often several sessions a week over years.
Where the differences show
Frequency and duration are the visible ones. Classical psychoanalysis may involve several sessions weekly over years; most other psychotherapies are weekly and time-limited. Psychodynamic therapy sits between them — it draws on analytic ideas in a shorter, less intensive format.
Related distinction
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor and may or may not practise psychotherapy at all — see psychologist vs psychiatrist for that side of it.
This page explains the words. It is not guidance on choosing care.
