The inadvertent emergence of a phenomenological perspective in the philosophy of cognitive psychology and psychoanalytic developmental psychology.

The phenomenological perspective described by M. Merleau-Ponty seems to be emerging in the context of contemporary developmental research, theories of communication, metaphor theory, and cognitive neuroscience. This emergence is not always accompanied by reference to Merleau-Ponty, however, or appropriate interpretation. On some cases, the emergence of the perspective seems rather inadvertent. The purpose of this essay is to ferret out some of the points which contemporary thinking has in common with Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. Though it may appear that the examples chosen for this essay might be scrutinized separately, the thread that ties them together is Merleau-Ponty's work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Fundamentals of psychoanalytic technique.

Reviews the book "Fundamentals of psychoanalytic technique," by Trygve Braat?y (see record 1955-00974-000). Braat?y, a slightly off-beat psychoanalyst, writes as a facile essayist, drawing on a vast fund of intriguingly patterned knowledge, often careless with words in his first approximations, but showing profound thoughtfulness and meticulous patience in setting forth his material. The material itself will be of variable interest to most psychologists. His book is a fascinating development in the gradually emerging rapprochement between those analysts who are completely unconscious and those psychologists who permit themselves to think only with the 10 per cent of their iceberg minds that maintains a bobbling existence above sea level. While much of the book lacks the authority of firmly established evidence, its purpose is more to consider implications that go beyond the evidence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relevance of a psychoanalytic perspective in exploring religious and spiritual identity in psychotherapy.

The attempt to make meaning of the soul is inherent to psychoanalytic inquiry, despite its historical diminution of religion and spirituality. Feminist ideology and multicultural psychology have played a critical role in challenging traditional psychoanalytic conceptions of the practice of religion and spirituality as pathological and/or regressive. Contemporary psychoanalysis that emphasizes two-person psychology, and the intersubjective aspects of the analytic space has also allowed for more open inquiry into the spiritual lives of clients and therapists. Both psychoanalysis and spirituality share the goal of a search for particular aspects of one's identity. This search for one's real or true self becomes particularly poignant for both the therapist and the client, as it is highly reliant on the therapist's and the client's specific religious and spiritual contexts. This paper examines the development of identity as influenced by religious and spiritual beliefs. The author discusses a clinical case to illustrate the complex interaction between religious traditions and individual experiences of religion and spirituality, and related implications of a contemporary psychoanalytic approach to psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The current status of psychoanalytic theory.

In recent years, metapsychology has been effectively destroyed by a series of critiques, here summarized. Clinical psychoanalysis, its heart, is a testable scientific theory and need not be trivialized by being reduced to a hermeneutics, but it has been exposed by Grünbaum and Rubinstein as seriously lacking in empirical verification. Its genetic hypotheses are extremely difficult to test; the clinical case study is useful only as a means of generating hypotheses. As Rubinstein has shown, however, the clinical theory can be systematized and stated in probabilistic propositions testable by statistical research. Its fundamental propositions can be tested only by nonpsychoanalytic data, however. Object relations and self psychology have had a large vogue but do not address the fundamental theoretical problems. Those threaten the survival of psychoanalysis, but are being complacently ignored. Some possible solutions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychoanalytic treatment of narcissism.

This paper discusses the need for change in emphasis from metapsychological debate to a sharp clinical focus on the complex nature of narcissistic pathology. Narcissism is viewed as a dimension of psychopathology found at all levels of psychic functioning, at the core of which are characteristic ego and superego deficits around self-cohesion, self-continuity, and self-esteem regulation. It is argued that, if the definition of conflict is not viewed too narrowly, traditional Freudian or ego-psychological techniques are applicable and that the treatment of narcissism does not require a new theory, separate from that of object relations. Clinical material is presented to illustrate that all psychological phenomena are over-determined and contain aspects of unresolved preoedipal and oedipal conflicts. There are critical selfhood aspects at each stage of development which must be understood and interpreted, in addition to the traditional structural conflicts. It is stressed that highly developed skills in listening and in interpreting are required in order to discern the narcissistic and object-relations aspects of the clinical material and that the countertransference around the analyst's own narcissism needs particular attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Working intersubjectively: Contextualism in psychoanalytic practice.

Review of book: Donna M. Orange, George E. Atwood, and Robert D. Stolorow. Working Intersubjectively: Contextualism in Psychoanalytic Practice. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press, 1997, ix + 104 pp. Reviewed by Rebecca C. Curtis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The playground of psychoanalytic therapy.

Reviews the book, The playground of psychoanalytic therapy by Jean Sanville (see record 1991-98946-000). Sanville studies psychoanalytic therapy and uses play and playing as the focal point, the pivotal organizing concept. She reviews the theory of psychoanalytic development and the dynamics of clinical intervention, and she attempts to integrate the contribution of her favorite authors, such as Winnicott, Stern, Kohut, and as always, Freud. Thus, the book is a textbook of Sanville's vast theoretical clinical experiences with the motive to document that play is the essential organizing and integrating mental activity. A book rich in considering the fabric of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with its broad frame of reference must greatly limit the ideas of the author, and I wish that there could be a more complete integration of her propositions. It is a pleasure to follow Sanville's case vignettes and to observe her gift and sensitivity with which she tunes into the inner life of her patients. Sanville's book explores a new metapsychological dimension embedded in object relation propositions. The reader will find unexpected rewards. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The forgotten parent no more: A psychoanalytic reconsideration of fatherhood.

A growing body of psychoanalytic research has supported an understanding of the father as an important and unique contributor to child development. Though Freud's (1900/1961c, 1913/1961f) original understanding of fathering emphasized the punitive and inhibiting aspects of paternal influence, later theorists considered the more positive aspects of paternal involvement, such as the father's role in facilitating separation-individuation (M. Mahler, F. Pine, and A. Bergman, 1975). More recently, P. Blos (1984) has proposed that the male adolescent's capacity to enter into mature relationships in adulthood rests on successful resolution of the pre-Oedipal father–child relationship, whereas Kohl's (1977, 1984) work suggests that lifelong father hunger is best understood not as a pathological derivative of repression but rather as a universal part of normal development. (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)     

Three psychoanalytic realities.

Psychoanalysis works with three views of reality: factual reality, psychic reality, and coconstructed reality. The history of clinical psychoanalytic thinking about trauma demonstrates that these realities are often in conflict with each other and that they have cycled in use without any consensus developing about which is most correct. These three realities have also been used without consensus by the broader mental health field and in the study of myths, indicating that these realities are fundamental ways of understanding ambiguous psychological data. The uncertainty as to which reality is most correct is resolved by recognizing that it is part of the human condition to be constantly differentiating and integrating these realities, and so we best help our patients by engaging with them in the process of applying all three, rather than by making definite static decisions about which is most applicable. This approach is demonstrated with clinical material. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The future of psychoanalytic institutes.

The author contends that both conceptual and institutional problems permeate psychoanalytic institutes. Although institutional problems are historically based, they also derive from confusions around ill-defined concepts that lead to arbitrariness, authoritarianism, and the stifling of creativity. Psychoanalysis is a humanistic discipline that is touted as a science but is organized as a religion. Problems surrounding the right to train pervade psychoanalytic schisms, and transmission comes through processes of anointment. Institutional false expertise invokes the aura of anointment where training analysts pass down received truth through an esoteric pipeline depending on genealogy instead of function. Quasi-religious thinking and politics rush in to fill the gap between the level of claimed knowledge that affords qualification and the far lower level of real knowledge. Institutes should rely on evidence of candidates' performance and engage in open-ended inquiry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Termination of experiential therapy.

In this article, a set of principles governing termination in experiential therapy are laid out. These involve viewing the client as an agent, viewing change as a process, dealing with separation and loss, empowering the client, consolidating meanings, predicting relapse, tapering of sessions, and offering the possibility of a future relationship. Case examples are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cognitive-behavioral perspective on termination.

The issue of termination as viewed from a cognitive-behavioral orientation is considered within the context of the duration of treatment, the goals of therapy, and the underlying coping skills model that characterizes this orientation. These factors make a cognitive-behavioral approach to therapy both similar to and different from other orientations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of When theories touch: A historical and theoretical integration of psychoanalytic thought.

Reviews the book, When theories touch: A historical and theoretical integration of psychoanalytic thought by Steven J. Ellman (2010). For anyone interested in studying the evolutionary history of psychoanalytic thinking, Steven Ellman’s When theories touch offers the most complete, most intelligently selected and organized, most instructive text available. Ellman understands very well that psychoanalysts writing about theory are all too often either sectarians or pluralists. Sectarians, by devoting themselves too exclusively to a single angle of view, remain overly limited and mistake the part for the whole. Pluralists, on the other hand, avoid the necessary scientific work of adjudicating among competing truth claims and resolving category errors by positioning various theories in relation to one another. Ellman steers a course nicely between Scylla and Charybdis. By focusing on the points at which theories touch, Ellman, in effect, invites us to hover over the blind men and take a look at the elephant as a whole. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Other times, other realities: Toward a theory of psychoanalytic treatment.

Reviews the book, Other times, other realities: Toward a theory of psychoanalytic treatment by Arnold H. Modell (see record 1990-97902-000). This book is addressed to the psychoanalytically sophisticated reader. Its introduction and 10 chapters take the reader through a history of ideas that have been postulated to explain why psychoanalysis works. Interspersed are valuable comments by Modell that include his own original contributions to the discussion. Chapter 1 revolves around Freud and Nachtr?glichkeit. Chapter 2 illuminates the paradoxical relation between reality and illusions that is manifested in the analytic setting. The concept of reality and its various levels are examined in chapter 3. Chapter 4 discusses the neurobiological theories of Edelman, who postulates that memory is not isomorphic with past experience but a recategorization. Modell sees different levels of reality as corresponding to different forms of transference. He relabels transference neurosis as iconic/projective transference and the transference derived from the setting as dependent/containing transference. Chapter 5 amplifies his remarks on linear and cyclic time. Chapter 6 discusses interpretation and chapter 7 examines the concept of resistance. Other chapters deal with the patient's use of the therapist, with paradox and therapeutic dilemmas, and with various theories of psychoanalytic treatment. Modell tries to classify contemporary theories of psychoanalytic treatment but recognizes such attempts as little more than convenient fictions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New perspectives on development and their implications for psychoanalytic treatment.

Reviews the book, Psychoanalysis and infant research by Joseph D. Lichtenberg (1983). The burgeoning field of infant research has burst through the seams of our traditional view of infants. We now know that neonates are far more aware of their environment, more capable of eliciting responses from people, and more differentiated in their responses to caretakers and to a variety of external stimuli than we had ever believed. In part, this new knowledge has been gained through clever, creative experimentation by academic researchers. Experiments have been devised which are simple enough for neonatal responsiveness, yet offer relevant information about the infant's learning, cognitive, and emotional capacities. Joseph Lichtenberg's book, Psychoanalysis and infant research, presents this rich body of research. Were he content to offer us this new and absorbing view of the neonate, that alone would make the book interesting and worthwhile. Lichtenberg, however, is more ambitious. He sees important implications of infant research for various aspects of psychoanalytic theory and believes that a careful reading of the infancy data will "lead to reexamination of our theory" (p. 27). While the reviewer thinks there is much that infant research can offer to inform psychoanalytic theory, more empirical data are clearly needed from this area as well as from clinical research in the psychoanalytic setting. Lichtenberg deserves our gratitude both for calling our attention to some of the most important research findings that have emerged to date and for directing us to consider the implications of these findings for psychoanalytic theory and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental imagery in psychoanalytic treatment.

Mental imagery techniques may facilitate the therapeutic process by stimulating patients' insight into unconscious dynamics, by helping them uncover and master warded-off affect, and by enhancing the clinician's empathic contact and access to countertransference. The history of imagery techniques in the psychoanalytic movement and the effect of these techniques on the traditional psychoanalytic method are reviewed. A conceptual framework based on the theory of primary and secondary process suggests spontaneity, experiential scope, associative elaboration, and object impact as four dimensions for the clinical evaluation of imagery experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective response to psychoanalytic death symbols.

The possible relation between the death concept (in which the person dreads the dissolution of his own personality by death) and emotional response (as measured by the GSR) forms the basis for this study. Ss were 40 Roman Catholic seminarians with a median age of 28. 20 death symbol words and 30 control words were used. Significant differences in the mean responses between death words and nondeath words indicate that the presence of death symbol words elicited an unconscious affective reaction consistent with psychoanalytic theory concerning death symbols. 19 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vitalizing objects and psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Patients, with some measure of unconscious hope and dread, seek vitalizing objects. These objects, which represent interactional processes, provide persons with subjective and intersubjective experiences of being alive and real. This article proposes that a constitutional structure of vitality, which is initially nonpropositional and preconceptual, is projected onto objects, rituals, and persons. Ideally this provides persons with subjective and intersubjective organizations and meanings of being alive and real. The development, transformation, and expansion of these organizations and experiences are contingent on the complex interplay of trusted significant figures, primary and secondary transitional phenomena, and the person's constitutional capacities. Patients often display varying degrees of constricted abilities to make use of shared objects to feel alive and real. A goal of therapy is facilitating the patient's capacity to risk creating, projecting onto, and making use of socially shared phenomena for more diverse and expansive organizations and meanings of feeling alive and real. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A revised psychoanalytic conception of schizophrenia: An interdisciplinary update.

The psychoanalytic conception and treatment of schizophrenia is in need of fundamental revision because of (a) refinements in nosology which have separated out the borderline and affective disorders with which it had formerly been confused; (b) the development of newer psychoanalytic schools; and (c) the impact of various aspects of neurobiological research, the putative outcome of which seems to confirm that many, if not most, schizophrenics begin with a hereditary and/or congenital vulnerability to life and are disadvantaged in how they experience life, not only emotionally, but also neuroperceptually, neurocognitively, and neurobehaviorally. This contribution seeks to put schizophrenia and psychoanalysis in an interdisciplinary perspective by assigning the concept of disorders of psychical meaningfulness to the neurotic portion of the schizophrenic personality and of psychical meaninglessness to the psychotic portion of the personality. Whereas all psychoanalytic schools traditionally employ models that address meaningfulness, I suggest the employment of a newer model to deal with schizophrenia as a "disorder of self-regulation" (of meaninglessness), the latter being the neurobiological contribution. To the former I should like also to append the concept of a "disorder of interactional regulation" as its interpersonal complement in the sense of psychosocial, object relations, and systems theory interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)