Minding the Gap not Bridging the Gap: Family Therapy From a Psychoanalytic Perspective

Following recent interest in this journal in building bridges between a psychoanalytic and systemic approach to family therapy (Vol. 19, 1997), the authors take up the debate. A clinical vignette from a recent article is used for discussion and, in order to describe further work from a psychoanalytic perspective, two case vignettes are presented. The comparisons are discussed with particular reference to the concepts of projective identification, transference/countertransference and internal object relations.