This framing of something as psychologically wounding as going no contact is not only unhelpful but deeply insulting, and the fact is that it is mainly influencers, not mental health or psychology experts, who are responsible for framing it this way. Certainly, it gets them clicks, likes, listens, and downloads, but it doesn't do much for those of us who have had to make the painful decision to go no contact.
The first tradition views psychoanalysis as an effort to discover something true about the mind. That truth may be difficult to access and our methods imperfect, but the project assumes that a psychological reality exists and can be known, at least in part. Analysts in this lineage take for granted that human beings possess enduring inner worlds shaped by early experiences. They study drives, conflicts, defense mechanisms, object representations, personality, and psychopathology.
