The Analyst's Torment

The Analyst's Torment
Author: Dhwani Shah
Publisher: Phoenix Publishing House
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2022-10-20
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1800130732

Dhwani Shah moves the focus from using psychoanalytic theory and technique to explore the patient's mind from a safe distance. Instead, he concentrates on the analyst's feelings, subjective experiences, and histories, and how these impact on the intersubjective space between analyst and patient. His eight chapters each highlight a particular emotional state or problematic feeling and explore their impact on the analytic work, which requires emotional honesty and open reflection. This authenticity is vital for every unique encounter within the shared space of both the analyst and patient. The analyst must strive to be responsive, yet disciplined, and this requires the work of mentalization. An ability to "go there" with patients offers the best chance at helping them. The analyst's uncomfortable and disowned emotional states of mind are inevitably entangled with the therapeutic process and this has the potential to derail or facilitate progress. The chapters deal with uncomfortable themes for the analyst to face: arrogance, racism, dread and its close relation erotic dread, dissociation, shame, hopelessness, and jealousy. These bring up common ways in which analysts stop listening and struggle in the face of uncertainty and intensity; the difficulties in facing unbearable experiences with patients, such as suicidality; disruptions to being with patients in an affective and embodied way; and thwarted fantasies of being the "hero". With all of these difficult topics, Shah describes painful and tormenting experiences in a clinically meaningful way that allow growth. In this exceptional debut work, Shah demonstrates that what analysts feel, in their affects, bodies, and reveries with patients, is vital in helping them to understand and metabolise the patients' emotional experiences. This is a must-read for all practising clinicians.

Coasting in the Countertransference

Coasting in the Countertransference
Author: Irwin Hirsch
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2011-02-25
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1135469431

Winner of the 2009 Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic Scholarship! Irwin Hirsch, author of Coasting in the Countertransference, asserts that countertransference experience always has the potential to be used productively to benefit patients. However, he also observes that it is not unusual for analysts to 'coast' in their countertransferences, and to not use this experience to help treatment progress toward reaching patients' and analysts' stated analytic goals. He believes that it is quite common that analysts who have some conscious awareness of a problematic aspect of countertransference participation, or of a mutual enactment, nevertheless do nothing to change that participation and to use their awareness to move the therapy forward. Instead, analysts may prefer to maintain what has developed into perhaps a mutually comfortable equilibrium in the treatment, possibly rationalizing that the patient is not yet ready to deal with any potential disruption that a more active use of countertransference might precipitate. This 'coasting' is emblematic of what Hirsch believes to be an ever present (and rarely addressed) conflict between analysts’ self-interest and pursuit of comfortable equilibrium, and what may be ideal for patients’ achievement of analytic aims. The acknowledgment of the power of analysts’ self-interest further highlights the contemporary view of a truly two-person psychology conception of psychoanalytic praxis. Analysts’ embrace of their selfish pursuit of comfortable equilibrium reflects both an acknowledgment of the analyst as a flawed other, and a potential willingness to abandon elements of self-interest for the greater good of the therapeutic project.

Torment Me, But Don't Abandon Me

Torment Me, But Don't Abandon Me
Author: Leon Wurmser
Publisher: Jason Aronson
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2007
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780765704696

Torment Me, But Don't Abandon Me: Psychoanalysis of the Severe Neuroses in a New Key offers analysts and psychodynamic therapists an innovative way of understanding the theoretical intersection of masochism, perversion, shame, guilt, narcissism substance abuse. This constellation of psychopathology frequently is seen in clinical practice and often proves to be a difficult personality organization to treat. While Dr. Wurmser relies on elements of classical analysis to construct his theoretical framework (including a theoretical and clinical analysis of super ego analysis), he incorporates contemporary relational and intersubjective perspectives understanding that the analyst's involvement of the 'self' is critical for the successful treatment of the serious neuroses.

Inner Torment

Inner Torment
Author: Salman Akhtar
Publisher: Jason Aronson
Total Pages: 340
Release: 1999
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9780765701596

Integrating diverse psychoanalytic traditions with his own theoretical and clinical insights, Salman Akhtar provides answers to these and other important questions in this realm. He weaves the existing conceptual schisms and technical diversity into an integrated theory and technique. In a truly original contribution, he delineates certain ubiquitous human fantasies (e.g., "someday" and "if only" fantasies of optimism and nostalgia, and fantasies of powerful psychic tethers that bind us to others) and shows how their pathological variants underlie the suffering of these patients.

The Analyst’s Desire

The Analyst’s Desire
Author: Mitchell Wilson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2020-07-09
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1501328069

Mitchell Wilson explores the fundamental role that lack and desire play in psychoanalytic interpretation by using a comparative method that engages different psychoanalytic traditions: Lacanian, Bionian, Kleinian, Contemporary Freudian. Investigating crucial questions Wilson asks: What is the nature of the psychoanalytic process? How are desire and counter-transference linked? What is the relationship between desire, analytic action, and psychoanalytic ethics?

The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Personality Disorders

The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Personality Disorders
Author: John M. Oldham
Publisher: American Psychiatric Pub
Total Pages: 732
Release: 2007-04-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1585626627

Examine personality psychopathology from diverse perspectives and explore multiple research and treatment approaches with The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Personality Disorders. Capture the multifaceted range of nonpathological human behavior and develop a judicious understanding of the extremes of behavior that are called personality disorders. No other textbook today matches the clinically useful scope and relevance of Textbook of Personality Disorders. Its comprehensive coverage of theory, research, and treatment of personality disorders, incorporating illustrative case examples to enhance understanding, reflects the work of more than 70 expert contributors who review the latest theories, research findings, and clinical expertise in the increasingly complex field of personality disorders. The deeply informative Textbook of Personality Disorders is organized into six main sections: Basic concepts -- Summarizes definitions and classifications of personality disorders, building on broader international concepts and theories of psychopathology and including categorical and dimensional models of personality disorders Clinical evaluation -- Discusses manifestations, problems in differential diagnosis, and patterns of comorbidity; the most widely used interviews and self-administered questionnaires; and the course and outcome of personality disorders. Etiology -- Includes an integrative perspective (personality disorders, personality traits, and temperament); epidemiology (one in ten people has a personality disorder) and genetics; neurobiology; antecedents of personality disorders in children and adolescents; attachment theory and mentalization therapy in borderline personality disorder; and the complex and variable interface between personality disorders and sociocultural factors Treatment -- Covers levels of care and the full range of therapies, from psychoanalysis to pharmacotherapy; includes detailed information on schema therapy, dialectical behavior therapy (specifically developed for self-injuring/suicidal patients with borderline personality disorder), interpersonal therapy, dynamically-informed supportive psychotherapy, group treatment, family therapy, psychoeducation, the therapeutic alliance, boundary issues, and collaborative treatment Special problems and populations -- Addresses suicide, substance abuse, violence, dissociative states, defensive functioning, gender and cross-cultural issues, and patients in correctional and medical settings New developments and future directions -- Offers perspectives on brain imaging and translational research and asserts that the closer working relationship between clinical psychiatrists and behavioral neuroscientists -- with neuroimaging techniques as the common ground -- will result in more promising models to enhance our understanding of the neuroscience and molecular biology of personality disorders Offering both a wealth of practical information that clinicians can use right away in their daily practice and an up-to-date review of empirical research, The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Personality Disorders is the definitive reference and clinical guide not only for seasoned clinicians but also for psychiatry residents, psychology interns and graduate students, and social work, medical, and nursing students.

Psychoanalysis, Class and Politics

Psychoanalysis, Class and Politics
Author: Lynne Layton
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2006-09-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134181612

Do political concerns belong in psychodynamic treatment? How do class and politics shape the unconscious? The effects of an increasingly polarized, insecure and threatening world mean that the ideologically enforced split between the political order and personal life is becoming difficult to sustain. This book explores the impact of the social and political domains at the individual level. The contributions included in this volume describe how issues of class and politics, and the intense emotions they engender, emerge in the clinical setting and how psychotherapists can respectfully address them rather than deny their significance. They demonstrate how clinicians need to take into account the complex convergences between psychic and social reality in the clinical setting in order to help their patients understand the anxiety, fear, insecurity and anger caused by the complex relations of class and power. This examination of the psychodynamics of terror and aggression and the unconscious defences employed to deny reality offers powerful insights into the microscopic unconscious ways that ideology is enacted and lived. Psychoanalysis, Class and Politics will be of interest to all mental health professionals interested in improving their understanding of the ideological factors that impede or facilitate critical and engaged citizenship. It has a valuable contribution to make to the psychoanalytic enterprise, as well as to related scholarly and professional disciplines.

Under the Skin

Under the Skin
Author: Alessandra Lemma
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2010-02-25
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1135160988

Under the Skin considers the motivation behind why people pierce, tattoo, cosmetically enhance, or otherwise modify their body, from a psychoanalytic perspective. It discusses how the therapist can understand and help individuals for whom the manipulation of the body is felt to be psychically necessary, regardless of whether the process of modification causes pain.In this book, psychoanalyst Alessandra Lemma draws on her work in the consulting room, as well as films, fiction, art and clinical research to suggest that the motivation for extensively modifying the surface of th.

Core Competencies of Relational Psychoanalysis

Core Competencies of Relational Psychoanalysis
Author: Roy E. Barsness
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2017-07-20
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1315437759

Core Competencies of Relational Psychoanalysis provides a concise and clearly presented handbook for those who wish to study, practice, and teach the core competencies of Relational Psychoanalysis, offering primary skills in a straightforward and useable format. Roy E. Barsness offers his own research on technique and grounds these methods with superb contributions from several master clinicians, expanding the seven primary competencies: therapeutic intent, therapeutic stance/attitude; analytic listening/attunement; working within the relational dynamic, the use of patterning and linking; the importance of working through the inevitable enactments and ruptures inherent in the work; and the use of courageous speech through disciplined spontaneity. In addition, this book presents a history of Relational Psychoanalysis, offers a study on the efficacy of Relational Psychoanalysis, proposes a new relational ethic and attends to the the importance of self-care in working within the intensity of such a model. A critique of the model is offered, issues of race and culture and gender and sexuality are addressed, as well as current research on neurobiology and its impact in the development of the model. The reader will find the writings easy to understand and accessible, and immediately applicable within the therapeutic setting. The practical emphasis of this text will also offer non-analytic clinicians a window into the mind of the analyst, while increasing the settings and populations in which this model can be applied and facilitate integration with other therapeutic orientations. Core Competencies of Relational Psychoanalysis is inspired by Barsness’ students; he was motivated to create a primary text that could assist them in understanding the often complex and abstract models of Relational Psychoanalysis. Relevant for graduate students and novice therapists as well as experienced clinicians, supervisors, and professors, this textbook offers a foundational curriculum for the study of Relational Psychoanalysis, presents analytic technique with as clear a frame and purpose as evidenced based models, and serves as a gateway into further study in Relational Psychoanalyses.

A Primer of Supportive Psychotherapy

A Primer of Supportive Psychotherapy
Author: Henry Pinsker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2014-02-04
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1317771117

For many patients, supportive therapy is the treatment of choice, and for many others, the use of medications or of more expressive techniques optimally occurs in the context of a supportive relationship. Yet, there is a paucity of literature expressly devoted to the techniques and aims of supportive psychotherapy. In A Primer of Supportive Psychotherapy, Henry Pinsker remedies this situation by focusing directly on the rationale for, and techniques of, supportive psychotherapy. He explores this modality as a form of dyadic intervention quite distinct from expressive psychotherapies, and also shows how, to varying extents, supportive psychotherapy makes use of patterns of relationships and behavior, past and present. Pinsker's writing is wise, human, and direct. The realities, ironies, conundrums, and opportunities of the therapeutic encounter are vividly portrayed in scores of illustrative dialogues drawn from actual treatments. Destined to become the classic introductory work in the field, A Primer of Supportive Psychotherapy will be valued by students and trainees in all mental health disciplines--and by their teachers--for its wealth of practical guidelines and explicit instruction on how to develop, maintain, and make optimal therapeutic use of a supportive relationship. Psychopharmacologists, counselors, nurse practitioners, and primary care physicians are among the helping professionals who will likewise benefit from Pinsker's clear presentation of the principles of supportive work. Beyond its didactic value, this text will be an indispensable conceptual touchstone for any clinician interested in understanding more clearly the differences among various interventional modalities as a preliminary step in optimal treatment planning.