How psychoanalysis lost its way

Freud invented psychoanalysis as a way of exploring the processes of the mind.  The 'analysis' part of the title refers to his hope of finding patterns in apparently random  thoughts, patterns that would reveal a logic governing mental processes.  It was an experimental process.  It was not aimed at 'curing' anything or anyone.

The procedure was very simple.  One simply said everything that came into one's mind, without censorship, editing or correction.  The 'analyst' simply listened and hoped to find a logic that governed the process of human thought.  Freud wanted to explore what had never been explored before.  He had no real idea as to what he would find.

But as with many experimental processes, patterns could be discerned.  More properly, the analyst began finding ways of putting together the processes of thought in ways that sounded logical.  Freud began hypothesizing various 'causes', forces within the person that without his knowledge dictated the order and content of his thoughts.  Having apparently found such patterns, he began to find more and more cognitive events that could be fit within the patterns.  The old process of confirmatory bias began to operate.

When he looked at the mental processes of the depressed or dissatisfied person he found himself looking for 'causes'.  What caused people to be so dissatisfied with themselves?  Were they hiding secrets from themselves?  If so, how could that even happen?  The idea of having a secret hidden from one's own self was almost absurd.  Why would we do that?

Freud began making guesses, some inspired, others not so much.  A person might keep a secret from himself because it contradicted what he wanted to think of himself.  For instance, a person who prided himself on his honesty might prefer to 'forget' an instance in which he was clearly dishonest.  Secrets might be kept to protect the self=image or concept.  Perhaps keeping secrets from oneself contributed to someone's unhappiness.  So telling the truth might be a road leading to greater comfort and self-acceptance.  There's still some validity in this conjecture, but comfort and self-acceptance are not the criteria for curing mental disorders, like depression and anxiety.  Not having depression or inappropriate anxiety are.

At this point Freud and his increasing army of followers left the road of pure investigation and began to consider their methods potentially curative.  Not a science, now.  A treatment.  New theories and hypotheses abounded around a wide variety of symptoms.  The underlying concept was that understanding would lead to freedom and health.  Now psychoanalysis was not only a treatment but a series of methods and concepts that were aimed at a 'cure' of some sort.

There is some truth in this concept, apparently.  For some, it works.  For some, analysis becomes an endless exploration aimed at understanding everything, but changing nothing.  Knowing how and why you are harming yourself is useless without a change in behavior.  But of course there is nothing in psychoanalytic thought that suggests that behavior is important.   Some enthusiasts spent years and thousands of dollars in understanding themselves, with no detectable difference.  A jerk who understands why he is a jerk is still a jerk until he changes how he behaves.