Love in the Countertransference: Controversies and Questions.

The aim of this article is to bring discussion of the analyst's loving feelings toward his or her patients into open professional dialogue. Several controversies are examined: (a) countertransference love versus love in real life; (b) purposeful self-disclosure of the analyst's loving and sexual feelings; and (c) "falling in love" with one's patients. In each of these areas a personal clinical vignette and selective relevant literature are discussed. As befitting the subject matter, the author's writing style is as close as possible to the experience of the analytic couple, with minimal use of technical and abstract language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-Transformation and the unconscious in contemporary psychoanalytic therapy: The Problem of "Depth" Within a Relational and Intersubjective Frame of Reference.

Relational and intersubjective conceptions are compared with earlier models of psychoanalytic theory and practice, and a question is posed: Can an experience-near intersubjective field, cocreated by patient and therapist, accommodate an unconscious "depth" dimension? The authors consider intersubjectivity as the confluence of both parties' subjective self-with-other narratives, however deeply rooted they may be in individually unique developmental experience. These sources of psychological activation are discussed in terms of converging metaphoric pathways to the mutual understanding of self-narratives that are unconscious for patient and/or therapist, and thus their influence is presumably, yet not actually, unavailable to the intersubjective field. Case materials illustrate the roles of shared metaphor and the therapist's own subjectivity in the therapeutic process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Impact of the Sibling in Clinical Practice: Transference and Countertransference Dynamics.

For many years, the impact of sibling relationships on psychological development has been neglected in the literature, overshadowed by the role of the parent-child relationship. As a result, attention to sibling dynamics and sibling transference as valuable information for case formulation and treatment interventions has not been used to its maximum potential. The authors demonstrate how deliberate consideration of sibling dynamics as well as the transferences and countertransferences associated with those dynamics can facilitate treatment. Several important sibling dynamics are discussed, including siblings' influences on identity development; sibling rivalry, jealousy, envy, guilt, and resentment; and sibling attachment. The impact of sibling dynamics on adult love relationships is discussed, as are potential effects of sibling abuse and sibling bereavement. Examples of how these dynamics can manifest themselves in transference and countertransference reactions and suggestions for working with those dynamics are illustrated with clinical examples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The centrality of the system Ucs in the theory of psychoanalysis: The nonrepressed unconscious.

After Freud discovered an unconscious system (Ucs) between 1894 and 1896, a window opened for him to formulate a comprehensive theory of the human psyche, which he called psychoanalysis. The Ucs was its foundation. The object relations theories, ego psychology, self-psychology, and their offshoots managed to erode that concept from the theory in different ways and tried to replace psychoanalysis. The reason is that Freud, for a long time, associated the unconscious with the repressed. It was possible by reviewing his work in the field of repression, defense, and the unconscious to uncover the nature of the system Ucs. It is not possible for a school of psychology within psychoanalysis to ignore the systemic unconscious and replace it with a dynamic unconscious and still claim that it is psychoanalytic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thoughts on Ahmed Fayek's article: "The centrality of the system Ucs in the theory of psychoanalysis": Setting the record straight.

Freud's first formulation about the structure of the mind was a tripartite theory of awareness--conscious, preconscious and unconscious--referred to as "the system unconscious." Fayek (see record 2006-00627-005) addresses the fate of this construct, pointing out that it is no longer used as Freud construed it. Fayek gives reasons for this eventuality: assertions I question. I offer an alternative explanation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Countertransference issues in the assessment and treatment of trauma recovery with victims of violent crime.

This article examines countertransference in the assessment and treatment of recovery from traumatic incidents of adulthood, with specific focus on victims of violent crime. It reviews Freud's impediment theory, with particular attention to implications concerning empathic strain and vicarious traumatization. It introduces Wilson and Lindy's Type I Countertransference (avoidance), Type II Countertransference (overidentification), and their respective manifestations. It then proposes a Type III Countertransference (communicative) that applies a more totalistic perspective that utilizes concepts of splitting, projection, projective identification, and intersubjectivity. It differentiates between countertransference orientations to trauma that are content-based or processed-based as well as those that may be figure or ground. Finally, it presents some common countertransference reactions and roles that become enacted and therefore have treatment implications, examines the interaction between therapeutic and real relationships as contributors to those scenarios, and presents case examples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Countertransference temptation and the use of self of self-disclosure by psychotherapists in training: A discussion for beginning psychotherapists and their supervisors.

Most recent articles on self-disclosure have addressed advanced questions of theory and technique related to self-disclosure in psychoanalysis. This article, however, takes up issues related to the use of self-disclosure by psychotherapists in training. Rather than arguing categorically that beginning psychotherapists should or should not use self-disclosure, the focus here is on the factors influencing the decision of whether or not to make a self-disclosure. Illustrated by 2 case examples, it is argued that because of their relative lack of experience in working with transference and countertransference, beginning therapists are especially susceptible to the temptation to use self-disclosure and nondisclosure to close off--rather than to analyze--a patient's intense transference feelings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maintaining the Safe and Effective Therapeutic Relationship in the Context of Distrust and Anger: Countertransference and Complex Trauma.

Prior research has shown that anger is a prominent feature in the psychopathology of trauma survivors. This hostile reactivity can be difficult for clinicians, who must balance instruction or interpretation designed to teach clients appropriate ways to handle anger and judicious withholding of response to maintain the therapeutic alliance for other purposes. Unlike studies that ask therapists to report their own mistakes, this research centers on advice given by 132 interview participants who had completed long-term trauma therapies. Clients generally reported greater satisfaction with trauma clinicians who were emotionally disclosing after angry episodes and who took partial responsibility for disagreements in therapy. Outcomes and satisfaction tended to be poor if therapists were "blank screens" in the face of anger. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gold Medal Award for Enduring Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest: Thomas Gordon.

The American Psychological Foundation (APF) Gold Medal Awards recognize distinguished and enduring records of accomplishments in 4 areas of psychology. The 1999 recipient of the Gold Medal Award for Enduring Contributions by a Psychologist in the Public Interest is Thomas Gordon. Gordon created a model for both building and maintaining close and enduring relationships. A citation, biography, and selected bibliography of Gordon's works are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thomas J. Fagan: Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Practice in the Public Sector.

Presents the citation for Thomas J. Fagan, who received the Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Practice in the Public Sector "for his service as a leader in correctional psychology." A brief profile and a selected bibliography accompany the citation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thomas W. Miller: Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Practice in the Public Sector.

Presents the citation, biography, and selected bibliography for Thomas W. Miller, the 2007 recipient of the American Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Practice in the Public Sector. Also presented is an article based on the author's award address delivered at the 115th annual meeting, held August 17-20, 2007, in San Francisco, California. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analytic gains and anxiety tolerance: Punishment fantasies and the analysis of superego resistance revisited.

The great anxieties of our lives are based on childhood anxieties, underscored by childhood disappointments and traumas, embellished by our own rage and desires. These anxieties, usually organized around object representations, comprise our punishment fantasies. Punishment fantasies exist in opposition to "forbidden" childhood wishes, comprising our unconscious. Such wishes and punishment fantasies insinuate themselves into our waking lives, yielding the conscious anxiety with which we are forced to cope. In demystifying unconscious desires and anxieties we help patients gain greater freedom to seek the realistic pleasures available in their lives. To do this, the patients must be able to tolerate and to some extent master their experiences of anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment Disorganization: The Reunion of Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis.

The author investigates the psychoanalytic implications of recent attachment research on the disorganized attachment category in infants and the unresolved for trauma and loss adult attachment classification with which it has been associated. The author first reviews empirical findings on attachment disorganization and then explores the ways in which they are consistent with and illuminated by psychoanalytic concepts. The focus is on linkages between disorganized attachment and Freud's theory of strain trauma and traumatic anxiety, Klein's theory of projective identification and the interplay between paranoidschizoid and depressive anxieties in development, and Blatt's theory of psychological development as resulting from the interplay of anaclitic and introjective developmental lines. In so doing, this article contributes to the reunion between attachment theory and psychoanalysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Role of Saccade Targeting in the Transsaccadic Integration of Object Types and Tokens.

The presence of location-dependent and location-independent benefits on object identification in an eye movement contingent preview paradigm has been taken as support for the transsaccadic integration of object types and object tokens (J. M. Henderson, 1994). A recent study, however, suggests a critical role for saccade targeting in the generation of the 2 preview effects (F. Germeys, De Gr?f, & Verfaillie, 2002). In the present study, eye movements were monitored in a preview paradigm, and both location-independent and location-dependent preview benefits were observed regardless of the saccade target status of the preview object. The findings support the view that type and token representational systems contribute independently to the integration of object information across eye movements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A disturbance in the field: Essays in transference-countertransference engagement.

Reviews the book, A disturbance in the field: Essays in transference-countertransference engagement by Steven Cooper (see record 2010-09125-000). At the beginning of this book, Cooper states that he is interested in finding the common ground, clinically, between the relational approach and other schools such as the Kleinian, Freudian, Kohutian, and others. In the introduction, Cooper states he will be examining the moments of transition, change, and newness that occur in psychoanalytic treatment. He alerts us that although he is very interested in countertransference as a clinical tool and the analyst’s imagination as helpful in the therapeutic work, he warns us to not see these elements in any heroic or idealistic manner. Cooper promises to explore the areas of unconscious conflict, fantasy, and the interpersonal process and believes both patient and analyst try to hold these dimensions in mind and communicate with each other throughout the clinical process. Overall, the reviewer enjoyed reading the book but was disappointed in that Cooper’s outline of what the reader can expect does not unfold. What is offered in this book is interesting, and at times illuminating, but overall runs somewhat flat. There were numerous places where Cooper could have taken his discussion points and tried to build a new fusion of relational, Freudian, Kleinian, and Kohutian approaches but he did not. The reviewer found it interesting that his case material seems to be a standard yet very skilled and natural combination of such views, but he does not elaborate on any theoretical matters or examine his case material as being predominantly a combination of such views. Therefore, the reviewer thinks there are many helpful and insightful points made in this book, but he was never really moved in any particular manner by the text. When reading his case material closely, the reviewer was struck by it being solid analytic work that seemed mostly of a Freudian and object relational mode, but again not anything unique or anything showing a new method of consolidating different theoretical approaches, which is what we were promised early on. The reviewer's overall reaction to this new book is that he is very appreciative of many individual chapters, and many sections of certain chapters, but they never all came together as a whole or jelled as a unifying theme that felt new and transformative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The subjugation of the body in eating disorders: A particularly female solution.

Object relations theorists have explained the ruthless control of the body seen in eating disorders as an attempt to dominate the bad maternal object. It is more useful clinically to view it as an attempt to subjugate one's needy self experience. The patient's vehement denial of need makes it much more difficult to develop a self-object transference. The split between needing and not needing in the patient's subjectivity is reciprocally related to a specific split in the therapist's subjectivity between worry and neglect. Many more women than men develop eating disorders because women are more likely to use their bodies to contain their disavowed, intolerable need states, whereas men are more likely to experience the Other in this way. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

First came the trees, then the forest: Developmental changes during childhood in the processing of visual local-global patterns according to the meaningfulness of the stimuli.

This study investigated how global and local perceptual processes evolve during childhood according to the meaningfulness of the stimuli. Children had to decide whether visually presented pairs of items were identical or not. Items consisted of global forms made up of local forms. Both global and local forms could represent either objects or nonobjects. In dissimilar pairs, items differed at one level (target level), while the other level included similar forms on both sides (irrelevant level). The results indicate an evolution from local preference at 4 years of age to adult-like global preference at 9 years of age. Moreover, as previously reported in adults, regardless of age, identification impaired performance when the irrelevant level was made of objects and the target level was made of nonobjects (interference). However, in younger children, this interference existed even when objects were present at all levels, suggesting that the strategy used to perform the comparison task also varied according to age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reply to Jon Mills (2006): An open letter to the members of Division 39.

This letter is an objection to the publication of a series of remarks by Jon Mills in the commentary entitled "A response to my critics" (23 [1]: 197-209, 2006; see record 2006-03254-016). The remarks are ad hominem attacks on the behavior of Jody Davies and myself at a panel at the Division 39 meeting in New York on April 17, 2005. The remarks precede his commentary on three written discussions of a version of the paper presented at the panel that was later published in Psychoanalytic Psychology. Mills claims that all I did from the floor was rant and rave about his criticisms of Stephen Mitchell, attacking him in an ad hominem way without having anything to say substantively about his critique. I object that the editor allowed these remarks to be published despite their vitriolic content and the fact that the reader has no way of checking the accuracy of Mills' representation of what I (and Dr. Davies) said and did. In addition, the letter includes an account of the arguments that I presented at that panel, rebutting Mills' claim that I presented nothing substantive at all. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)