On psychoanalytic autobiography

This article considers how one might define ‘psychoanalytic autobiography’, using statements from theorists of ‘life-writing’ and extracts from autobiographers (some of them psychoanalysts), together with their own commentaries on the genre. The focus is less on content and more on the nature of the art form, with a view to noting analogies with the psychoanalytic process. These analogies are to be found, in particular, in the qualities of transference dialogue; in the art of transformative or communicative projective identification; and in the contrast between self-indulgent and constructive types of memory. Psychoanalytic autobiography is seen as a mode of remaking the self – not omnipotently but through exploratory self-analysis, frequently following the familiar pattern of loss and rediscovery. It entails a special imagined relationship with the unknown reader, and a sense of being guided by a detached observational eye equivalent to that which Bion terms the ‘third party’ in a psychoanalytic situation.     

Psychodynamic counselling in an educational setting: Containing,transference and clientele

Abstract

The concepts of containing and transference, as well as the specific nature of the clientele, may, on a first approach, be used to differentiate psychodynamic counselling in an educational setting (PES) from the ‘pure gold’ of psychoanalysis. Further, it is argued that a realistic understanding of PES, given the constraints in which it operates, demands that the psychodynamic practitioner be prepared to cut her procedural cloth in accordance with the demands her clients place upon her. This makes PES a pragmatical practice rather than some lesser cousin of ‘orthodox’ psychoanalysis.     

Transference,triangles and trajectories

In this article the author addresses the issue of the need to lessen the likelihood of a regressive transference neurosis in short-term therapy. He examines the role that active interpretation of the transference can have in shaping the transference so that it remains at the level of the transference that is ubiquitous. He explores the relationship between such an active interpretative approach and the need for the therapist to be empathic and sensitive to the patient and to allow space for a patient's independent discoveries. The author describes the role of the Central Therapeutic Focus, as a constellation of the Triangles of Insight, in guiding the therapist to select those manifestations of the transference to interpret, and in enabling the therapist to retain a stance that is sensitive and empathic. The Central Therapeutic Focus is contrasted with the concept of the Central Issue, and with the latter's more specific attention to the contribution that it makes to the therapist's communication of their empathic understanding of the patient's difficulties. The nature of the relationship between the therapist and the patient in short-term therapy is explored further and the connections between companionable interaction, ego-relatedness and the matrix of the transference are outlined. The author proceeds to consider the nature of the process of working through in short-term therapy and of the need to attend to the patient's external world as the place in which this can occur. The contribution of the Central Therapeutic Focus in shaping the trajectory through which the patient and therapist attend to the external world is examined. This in turn is linked to the identification of a patient's ordinary solution to their problem as a means of resolving their Dilemma. The article concludes with a case example that illustrates these themes.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

There are many brief, demanding, aborted cases that no one ever writes about. The typical psychoanalyst or psychoanalytic psychotherapist, however, has many outpatient cases that are shortlived, intense encounters with very disturbed patients. Rather than ignore these encounters as non-analytic or non-instructive, I think these cases add to our knowledge about the mind and its functions. In addition, it is unrealistic to think we can always help a very anxious and disturbed person to enter the treatment process with immediate success. It is more instructive to apply the analytic method and offer the patient what we can and have both analyst and patient learn as much as they can in the time they are able to stay together. Using case material, I show the Kleinian approach to working analytically with these difficult patients. Whether focusing on transference or extra-transference material, the analyst interprets the patient's internal phantasies and anxieties regarding the self and the self's important objects. This analytic stance tends to relieve the immediate anxiety and set the stage for potential self-reflection and the start of basic working-through processes.     

Strengthening the Strengths Perspective

Abstract

This article revisits the strengths perspective as conceptualized in social work practice. Although we find this perspective has value and utility for practitioners, we identify areas where the strengths perspective could be enhanced and augmented by integrating the contemporary relational approach exemplified by Paul Wachtel's cyclical psychodynamics. Specifically, we explore his concepts of therapeutic communication and use of language, including interventions that affirm client strengths such as reframing, searching for variations and exceptions, and reconceptualizing how transference impacts the therapeutic action. We illustrate our view with a case vignette, advocating that Wachtel's integrative approach provides a new context for psychodynamics in current social work practice.     

Stumbling along in the Countertransference: Following Up Enactments with Balanced Therapeutic Interpretations

In the course of a psychoanalytic treatment, many clinical situations create countertransference pulls or invitations to participate in enactments of various degrees. In these projective identification-based transferences, the patient is often successful in drawing the analyst into archaic object relational patterns of acting out. During these moments, the analyst must struggle to find a way to stay therapeutically balanced. The urge to rush to judgment with punitive, seductive, rejecting, controlling, or manipulative comments rationalized as interpretations must be managed. If these unavoidable countertransference enactments are managed and studied, they can provide useful information about the patient's internal struggles and can show the way to making more helpful and more therapeutic interpretations. Case material is used for illustration.     

Therapeutic Work with Trauma,Revictimization, and Perpetration: Bearing Witness,Offering Hope,Embracing Despair

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a case study of a survivor of childhood incest who in adulthood has become a victim of violence in her relationships with chosen partners and is concerned that she herself may be a perpetrator of sexual abuse. It examines selected literature on attachment, dissociation, transference/countertransference, role responsiveness and sadomasochistic therapeutic enactments, the two-system superego model, and the triadic self. The paper focuses on long-term treatment dynamics with survivors of cumulative trauma and explores such psychodynamic psychotherapy issues as the therapist as a perpetrator of violence, the development of sacred space, authenticity, and the importance of both offering hope and embracing despair in this work.     

Control-Mastery

Abstract

This paper will introduce the theory of Control-Mastery, an empirically supported, cognitively oriented interpersonal theory of psychotherapy. Control-Mastery theory offers a distinctive approach to counter-transference in particular and suggests a unique way to understand unconscious functioning. The theory also provides specific guidelines for conducting psychotherapy as well as a useful framework for understanding the impact of familial as well as cultural context on individual psychological struggles.     

陌生人印象偏好的实验研究

以80名大学女生为被试,在关系自我理论的框架下,采用移情研究的双时段范式,以实验法考察了关系自我和重要他人对于陌生人印象偏好的影响。结果发现：在无提示的条件下,与重要他人相似的陌生人得到更多的印象偏好;在有提示的条件下,这种由相似性而产生的偏好会显著降低。证明了重要他人对陌生人印象偏好的影响,并讨论了关系自我在其中发挥的中介作用。     

Holistic thinking and air traffic controllers' decision making in conflict resolution

When facing potential conflicts, whether to make interventions is an important decision for air traffic controllers and vital for aviation safety and efficiency. While many task-related factors in influencing such decisions have been identified, the large portion of individual differences has remained insufficiently explained. This paper proposes that controllers with a more holistic thinking style will be more likely to make interventions because they envision more uncertainties in the system which can lead to a higher level of perceived risk and a greater likelihood to take proactive measures. To test these hypotheses, forty-two licensed controllers were invited to complete a questionnaire measuring holistic thinking style and later a conflict detection/resolution task. Multilevel regression analyses showed that (1) when the real risk level (the minimum lateral distance between two converging aircraft) dropped, controllers who think more holistically still tended to maintain a higher risk perception level (perceived likelihood of aircraft collision in the future) which lead to a higher intervention ratio and (2) even when real and perceived risk levels were controlled, those who think more holistically were more likely to make interventions. These findings are discussed with reference to literature in cognitive style, risk perception and workload management. Potential implications for personnel selection and training are also discussed.