The use of psychoanalytic constructs in the service of empire: Comment on Baruch (2003).

Comments on an article by Baruch on psychoanalysis and terrorism (see record 2003-09630-009). The author believes that there is an extra-analytic space for articulating that which is beyond analysts' work with patients and for informing their understanding of history, culture, politics, gender, power, and other phenomena. The rules that govern psychoanalysts' "analysis" of these extra-analytic phenomena are, however, different from those that govern their work with patients. The complexities and vicissitudes of psychoanalytic discourse within analysts' clinical frame (their standard clinical practice) are different for phenomena on the "outside." In addition, clinical psychoanalytic discourse cannot stand outside the powerful narratives of power, gender, race, class, and empire. A psychoanalytic perspective is important in addressing extra-analytic issues only after analysts understand their relationship to power, gender, race, class, and empire. Just as analysts check themselves with supervision and careful countertransference reflection, they must also check themselves when they engage in extra-analytic work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The therapist's pregnancy: Children's transference and countertransference reactions.

Discusses ways in which the child therapist's pregnancy influences the transference, based on clinical material from 6 patients (aged 3.5–16 yrs). The children presented with issues of unmet infancy needs, exhibiting symptoms of sibling rivalry and abandonment, and they struggled to work through their mother–child transferences. For most of the children, the therapist's pregnancy caused them to identify with the unborn child and presented them with a sibling transference. Recommendations are made for how therapists might cope with changes due a pregnancy and how to bring up the issue of the pregnancy with clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the section: Contemporary structural analysts critique relational theories.

Discusses 9 contemporary structural analysts' examination of object relational models from the perspective of the modern structural model that dictated their clinical work. Areas of divergence are noted that focus on the transference, the functions and management of defense and resistance, and the relative roles of insight and the experience of the therapeutic relationship in psychoanalysis. There seems to be consensus that the process of analysis must emphasize both insight and the analytic relationship to work best for the benefit of the analysand. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Erotic transference through countertransference: The female therapist and the male patient.

Explores the female clinician's countertransference as the primary limiting factor in sexual transference. The female therapist, who may be unconsciously fearful of losing a boundary or being violated, may afford her male patient a less than optimal chance of understanding the shame attendant to his sexuality or the aggression that may be associated with it. Although sexual transference is the entree into the patient's psychic life, sexual countertransference is anathema, a double standard that is now coming under fire. Two cases are described in which men develop strong sexual transferences and engender stong countertransferences in return. Although these men were sexually overstimulated as children and possibly abused, the processes they undergo may be extrapolated to other male patient–female clinician dyads. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supervision and self-esteem in psychiatric teaching

This paper focuses on the supervisory tasks of empathizing with the student so as to appreciate the student's observations and transferences. It is shown that empathy becomes more difficult to achieve in the training of the foreign graduate whose situation is used as a paradigm for understanding of the teaching tasks. A prominent issue in this paper is the elaboration of the transference needs of the student.     

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)     

Interpretation of psychic conflict and adversarial relationships: A self-psychological perspective.

Transference, as described in conflict theory, and self object transference, as considered within self psychology, are represented in a changing figure and ground relationship. An emphasis on conflict and resistance analysis may structure analytic treatment along an adversarial dimension, with implications for self object and object-related transferences. The analytic approach to psychic conflict involves interpreting what the patient defensively needs to ward off. The approach to self-pathology is to interpret the self object functions that the patient needs for self-consolidation and self-maintenance. Accurate assessment of instances in treatment where psychic conflict is the predominant configuration requires a clinical theory that embraces multiple perspectives. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does sex matter? The confluence of gender and transference in analytic space.

What is the role of gender in transference? This article outlines some aspects of gender and gender construction that may potentially affect analytic space. Relational and classical notions of intersubjective, intrapsychic, and the analytic third are explored for ways in which they both converge and diverge and shed light on the reciprocal interplay between gender and transference. A clinical vignette illustrates theoretical considerations, highlighting the jointly created elements of gender-linked transferential configurations within a female-female dyad. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self psychology and the etiology of borderline personality disorder.

Describes borderline personality disorder (BPD) as arising from a restriction in the initial duality of merger and separateness in which the self is left dependent on the merged caregiver for cohesion. Such enfeeblement of self arises from a derailment of the formation of the nuclear self prior to age 3. BPD patients thus have no coherent self, and when threatened with fragmentation from some fissure in close relationships, react with panic and rage. Most characteristic of the defenses of BPD patients is splitting and the resultant idealization and devaluation within relationships. From a self psychology perspective, the BPD patient's self will grow by phase appropriate empathic responsiveness embedded in a matrix of idealizing, mirroring, and alter ego transferences. Treatment should focus on the transference that develops around the patient's striving for independence. A case illustration is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lesbian homoerotic transference in dialectic with developmental mourning: On the way to symbolism from the protosymbolic.

This clinical study illustrates the developmental nature of homoerotic transference, when the psychoanalyst is attuned to the evolving dynamics of the mourning process, in this case with a lesbian analysand. The analysand's psychic fantasies of the female analyst as a muse and a demon lover figure are seen to transform into discrete mother and father transferences, as split off feminine and aggressive parts of the self are reintegrated along with heterosexual desires and oedipal desires. Protosymbolic enactments in terms of romantic gift giving and other seductive overtures transform into symbolic expressions of love, concern, regret, and tenderness. A lesbian marriage is preserved, and the loss of intimacy with men is mourned so that desires for intimacy with men can be sublimated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptualizing the therapeutic alliance from a psychoanalytic perspective.

Defines the therapeutic alliance as the patient's active collaboration in the work of psychotherapy or psychoanalysis. The failure to differentiate alliance from transference has in part led to the skepticism regarding the concept of alliance. The patient's active use of the treatment process as a resource for self-understanding and constructive change constitutes his/her collaboration. The nature of collaboration varies with the type of treatment. The alliance depends significantly upon the patient's ability to maintain an observing ego; the activation of transferences significantly affects this process. The alliance is influenced by a core of object relations capacities that are essential to forming a trusting relationship. Defining alliance as patient collaboration makes a sharp distinction between technique and alliance. It is suggested that a scale devised to assess the degree of collaboration, based on this conceptualization, by the present 3rd author and colleagues (1983) provides an instrument for future research. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developing a new narrative: The woman therapist and the male patient.

Discusses the impact of the participants' gender on the therapeutic dialog, in particular the relationship of women therapists to male patients, using data obtained in 13 interviews with female analysts, therapists, or students. Two issues were found to be distinctive to the woman therapist: the contradictory terrain of female authority and the meaning of intimacy with women, given the residues of the separation/individuation process. The preoedipal maternal transference, the possible defensive uses of the erotic transference (e.g., issues concerning power), and the merging of aggressive and sexual impulses are discussed vis-à-vis the dyad of the woman therapist and the male patient. Issues of fantasy and hostile transference are also discussed. (66 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bootstrapping the security analyst.

Evaluated the feasibility of applying the "bootstrapping" methodology to 5 securities analysts' task of estimating future returns of common stock. Each S estimated the returns of 35 securities on the basis of 22 information cues, selected independently by nonparticipating analysts. Stepwise regression was used to estimate bootstrapping models and actuarial models for all analysts. Using a subset of 15 cross-validation securities, bootstrapping and actuarial models generally were superior to the analysts. The performance of a "composite" analyst was superior to the performances of the 5 Ss. Results indicate the desirability of incorporating linear models into the analyst's judgmental task. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Should men treat couples? Transference, countertransference, and sociopolitical considerations.

Describes couples therapy (CPT) as both a conversation and an experience which are significantly different for each member of the couple when the therapist is a male. CPT differs profoundly from individual therapy in that CPT involves 3 people, 2 of whom will share the same gender, resulting in an inherent imbalance with important transference and countertransference consequences and dilemmas. This imbalance and the transference–countertransference constellations that result are explored. Recommendations concerning gender sensitivity are made to the therapist to promote appropriate treatment. The author believes that if asked whether men should treat couples, the simple answer should be yes, because men are clearly capable of treating couples. The more complex answer is yes, but only with great sensitivity to gender issues, within the couple itself, and within the therapist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpretive work in short-term individual psychotherapy: An analysis using hierarchical linear modeling.

"Work" and "resistance" responses to interpretation in short-term individual (STI) psychotherapy were examined using a hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) procedure. The relationships between interpretation characteristics and patient responses within therapy were considered. Process data were drawn from 60 STI therapy cases, 30 patients with low quality of object relations (QOR), and 30 patients with high QOR. In 4 instances, the relationships between technique and response were found to vary significantly across cases. One was identified for low QOR patients, and 3 were identified for high QOR patients. Individual differences in initial disturbance and outcome were used to account for the variation of technique-response relationships. Significant findings were limited to the high QOR sample. Initial disturbance was directly related to work in response to a transference oriented approach. The transference focus-work relationship was found to be inversely related to outcome. The results extend previous findings regarding transference technique in STI therapy with high QOR patients. Through capitalizing on within-case variation, HLM can be used to illuminate process-outcome relationships in psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Siblings, transference, and the lateral dimension of psychic life.

The author considers developmental and transferential implications of the lateral dimension of psychic life, which entails the challenge to forge a unique and valued identity in a world of one’s equals, beginning with siblings. The lateral dimension intersects with the vertical dimension of hierarchical relationships, notably those between child and parent. Consideration of the lateral dimension and its particular developmental challenge promises to expand our understanding of the processes of identity development and of transferences involving both siblings and parents. Moreover, conceiving of psychic life as comprising two dimensions may help to contextualize existing psychoanalytic understanding of sibling-related processes in light of fundamental tenets of psychoanalytic theory. A detailed clinical case provides an opportunity to consider the entwined roles of siblings and parents in the developmental challenges of the lateral and the vertical dimensions, and the ways in which identifications with parents and siblings may address those challenges. The author concludes that attention to the lateral dimension and its sibling-centered processes rewards us with a more comprehensive view of identity development and transference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ancestral voices: Narrative and multicultural perspectives with an Asian schizophrenic.

Explores the effects of traditional Asian cultural values, family roles, and behavioral norms upon the psychodynamic formulation and treatment of the case of a 36-yr-old female Chinese immigrant schizophrenic. The main principles of Control Mastery theory, a cognitive approach to psychoanalytic psychotherapy, are presented and its Plan Formulation Method is reviewed, from the perspective of post-modern theories of life-narrative transformations and relational theories of mind. Culturally sensitive modifications of psychodynamic theory are introduced, and implications of the hierarchical transference and therapist "gift" giving are discussed, with emphasis on story telling and role modeling interventions/parameters effectively used to address issues of acculturation conflicts, gender issues, and Asian-American identity formation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood parental relationships of homosexual men.

Administered a 27-item questionnaire adapted from I. Bieber, et al. (see 40:2) to 43 homosexual and 142 hetersexual men in order to determine whether certain items which Bieber, et al. had reported as differentiating homosexual and hetersexual males who were in psychotherapy would also differentiate similar groups who had never sought psychotherapy. Data were based on retrospective self-reports regarding childhood fears and activities, and interparental and parent-child relationships. In the Bieber study, each S's psychoanalyst completed the questionnaire, so that their data were based on analysts' reconstructions of Ss' early lives. Results from the present study were similar to Bieber's in revealing more "negative" features in the backgrounds of the homosexuals. Results were considered neither to support nor refute the Bieber conclusions regarding the etiological importance of parental relationships in homosexuality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supertransference: The role of the supervisor's blind spots.

Explores the sources of difficulties, conflicts, and misalliances that frequently arise in psychoanalytic supervision. Such factors as the supervisor's narcissistic investment and needs, the supervisor's expectations of the therapist, reactions to the personality of the therapist, and counterreactions to the therapist's transferences to the supervisor influence the course, flow, and outcome of the supervisory experience. The term "supertransference" is used to describe those difficulties that emanate from the supervisor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud's narrow escape and the discovery of transference.

Contends that Freud discovered transference in connection with material derived from his treatment of Emma Eckstein. The last chapter of Studies on Hysteria by J. Breuer and S. Freud (1895) in which Freud's 1st published use of the term transference occurs, can be read as a working through of the crisis that occurred when Eckstein nearly died. This concept, it is argued, explained Freud's patient's disturbed feelings toward him as a "false connection" and thereby helped to free him of feelings of personal involvement in her libidinal demands. The story of the troubled circumstances under which Freud discovered transference provides insight into the defensive nature of the concept. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)