The boundary between classical psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy is often not clearly drawn. Both approaches are based on psychoanalytic theories and principles of understanding the psyche where the emphasis is on the concept of the unconscious. The main difference is in the setting or the frame itself. Psychoanalysis takes place several times a week. The analysand usually lies on the couch and does not make eye contact with the analyst whereas psychoanalytic psychotherapy can also take place more times per week – but is usually one or two times a week – with the patient and therapist sitting opposite each other in a so-called vis-à-vis setting.

Psychoanalysis is not a time-limited approach. It is not tied to a certain topic but to what the analyst brings to the room (consciously and unconsciously). The analyst helps to discover the unconscious and symbolic meaning of what has been said (or not being said) through interventions, the main part of which is interpretation.