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)     

Review of Understanding transference: The CCRT method.

Reviews the book, Understanding transference: The CCRT method by Lester Luborsky and Paul Crits-Cristoph (1990). Understanding transference: The CCRT method presents a detailed overview of the research of Lester Luborsky, Paul Crits-Christoph, and their colleagues at the Penn Center for Psychotherapy Treatment and Research. Luborsky is one of the pioneers of psychoanalytic process research over the past 30 years. Since the late Seventies, he has elaborated the concept of the core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT). In this important book, the authors describe the evolution of the concept, present research in a number of areas using the CCRT, and give clinical applications of the CCRT. Reflecting the title, the authors are also interested in comparing the CCRT with Freud's writing on transference. Another aspect of the group's work is an interest in the concept of narrative, both as a unit of study and as a theoretical issue. In this review, Rosbrow tries to explain their concepts, elaborate key findings which are striking and clinically significant, and discuss theoretical issues--both those raised explicitly by the authors and also those stimulated by reading this book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Forensic questions and answers on the MMPI/MMPI-2.

Reviews the book, Forensic questions and answers on the MMPI/MMPI-2 by Alex B. Caldwell (see record 1997-36431-000). Whether voluntarily or not, psychologists are being drawn professionally into the legal world more and more, and this text by Caldwell is a powerful light for those headed into the tunnel. Other works on the forensic use of the MMPI and MMPI-2 have consistently started from the view of the court: what does the court need to know from personality assessment and what parts of that need can tests such as the MMPI answer? Starting from the MMPI rather than from the perspective of the court, Caldwell has provided a brief and concise set of answers as to what the MMPI can demonstrate—what questions can be asked of the MMPI, and what answers does it potentially provide. This book is entirely in a question-and-answer format. Each chapter poses a series of questions with answers that range from one paragraph to two or three pages. Caldwell asserts that he wrote the book for attorneys as well as psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Clinical interaction and the analysis of meaning: A new psychoanalytic theory.

Reviews the book, Clinical interaction and the analysis of meaning: A new psychoanalytic theory by T. Dorpat and M. Miller (see record 1992-98407-000). This text views psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy from the perspective of the newly proposed concept of "Meaning Analysis." The authors purport to advance psychoanalytic theory and technique by taking a fresh perspective on two important aspects of analytic encounter: the interaction between the analyst and analysand (therapist and patient) and how interactions in this relationship affect transference and countertransference. This book also examines the analysis of meaning and how treatment can assist in the understanding and reconstruction of client beliefs. The authors present a reanalysis of Freud's theory and the goal of the book is to elucidate the "flaws" in his work. The reviewer believes that many readers will be intrigued by the criticisms of Freud and the blending of more recent research into analytic models. This book is recommended for both analytically oriented therapists and interested readers who want to learn more about analytic treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Kohut seminars on self psychology and psychotherapy with adolescents and young adults.

Reviews the book, The Kohut seminars on self psychology and psychotherapy with adolescents and young adults by Miriam Elson (1985). This book is an editing of psychotherapy supervisory seminars offered in 1969-1970 by Heinz Kohut for psychiatrists, social workers, and psychiatric residents at the University of Chicago Student Mental Health Center. Patients focused on are late adolescents and young adults. Editor Miriam Elson's aim is to provide an understanding of Kohut's theories regarding narcissism and how this theoretical understanding was used by Kohut in treatment of pathological forms of narcissism. The book is divided into two sections, one describing Kohut's theory and the other Kohut's supervision of cases presented in the seminars. Concepts emphasized in Kohut's theoretical perspective--empathy, self-object function, developmental lines of narcissism and object love, self-esteem, understanding, the omnipotent/grandiose self, the idealizing transference and transmuting internalization--are developed and then applied in the casework. Effort is strongly made to relate theory to practice; through the editor's work this is accomplished. This is a readable, helpful book that can be used in psychotherapeutic work with late adolescents and young adults and, possibly, in other settings as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Describing the face of transference: Psychodynamic therapists' recollections about transference in cases of successful long-term therapy.

This study used the consensual qualitative research method to address questions about therapists' perceptions of transference in long-term therapy: How does transference operate? How is transference dealt with and resolved? What problems do therapists encounter with transference? Eleven dynamically oriented therapists were interviewed by phone about a successful case in which transference was an important part of treatment. On the basis of therapists' recollections, findings suggested that transference operated in a complex manner in terms of source, valence, themes, and the events influencing it; therapists used a wide range of techniques (nonanalytic and analytic) to deal with transference; working alliance, real relationship, and client emotional insight importantly influenced the resolution of transference; and a variety of countertransference reactions and mistakes were encountered when dealing with transference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Explanation and cognition.

Reviews the book, Explanation and cognition by Frank C. Keil and Robert A. Wilson (see record 2000-05066-000). The essays in this book address five basic questions about explanation as a large and natural part of our cognitive lives: (1) How do explanatory capacities develop, (2) are there kinds of explanation, (3) do explanations correspond to domains of knowledge, (4) why do we seek explanations and what do they accomplish, and (5) how central are causes to explanation? The volume’s various authors also introduce and explore a number of emerging perspectives on explanation from computer science, linguistics, and anthropology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Methods of research.

Reviews the book, Methods of Research (see record 1955-00057-000). The book is a lengthy volume addressed to "field workers, graduate students and members of the senior division of the undergraduate college who would evaluate the quality of conclusions, either as producers or consumers of research." The book has a number of collateral values which make it a useful reference work, including extensive bibliographies. The reviewer notes, though, that the work carries implications which will trouble many readers. It implies the primacy of data collection and treatment over the process of reflection from whence come the theories and hypotheses which direct the choice of data to be collected. It carries implications that all kinds of data collection are equally respectable, from an intellectual point of view, as indeed they are where only procedural questions arise. It implies that the student can be trained to "evaluate the quality of conclusions" on the basis of acquaintanceship and reference knowledge, i.e., knowledge of where to go in order to acquire the competency which will make one capable of asking the significant questions in the evaluation of the quality of conclusions. All of this seems to the reviewer to be likely to produce bystanders rather than participants in scientific work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Scientific excellence: Origins and assessment.

Reviews the book, Scientific excellence: Origins and assessment by Douglas N. Jackson and J. Phillipe Rushton (see record 1987-98186-000). This book contains a series of sixteen papers presented at a conference on scientific excellence, its origins, and assessment, held in 1985 at the University of Western Ontario. This book is a comprehensive contribution. It explores a many-faceted domain with erudition. References, ideas, provocative questions, and empirical data are found in almost every chapter. The bibliographic material is comprehensive. It will serve as a useful source book for anyone with an interest in how science is made, and evaluated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Philosophy of psychology.

Reviews the book, Philosophy of psychology by Daniel N. Robinson (see record 1985-97596-000). In this book, Robinson offers what might be considered to be four essays in the philosophy of mind. In these essays he has set out to clarify some rather fundamental concepts operative within the mainstream of psychology, and he brings to bear on these the conceptual machinery of philosophical psychology proper. That is, he asks foundational, or meta-psychological, questions about the reigning assumptions in the field. These questions fall into four general areas, or sub-themes, within psychology as a whole, each topic being taken in a separate chapter. These topics will be explored briefly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of What you don't know you know: Our hidden motives in life, business, and everything else.

Reviews the book, What you don't know you know: Our hidden motives in life, business, and everything else by Ken Eisold (2010). This book sets out to refresh and renew our understanding of the unconscious. It seeks to build on new research and recent discoveries, and in the process, rescue our thinking about the unconscious from the dying hand of psychoanalysis, to make it more widely accessible and useful (p. 18). A rather large chunk of this book is devoted to a discussion of the “self,” a comparison with concepts like “personality,” “individual,” and “ego,” and ultimately the shortcomings of the very term. This book argues for the centrality of the unconscious to the psychoanalytic identity. As such, I believe it is a useful corrective to the recent emphasis on the defining nature of transference and countertransference processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The place of transference in psychosocial research.

Psychoanalysis provides a complex discursive matrix for making sense of, or unraveling the existing sense of, textual material in social research. However, the relationship between psychoanalytic work in the clinic and psychoanalytic social research poses a series of questions for those working in each domain. The relationship opened up new fields of enquiry, of empirical and theoretical research, but it also now gives rise to empirical and theoretical problems. This paper is concerned with the elaboration of clinical concepts in the emerging field of psychosocial research, with a particular focus on the use of transference. The paper distinguishes 3 versions of transference in the psychoanalytic tradition, drawing attention to the importance of an “intersubjective” conception of transference in psychosocial research as an alternative to “attachment” models that appeal to mainstream empiricist approaches to psychological inquiry. The third version of transference elaborated in Lacanian psychoanalysis, one concerned with signification, is used to ground an analysis of the clinic as specific space in which the phenomenon manifests itself. Analysis of the clinic as “transferential space” enables us to conceptualize the place of psychoanalysis in the clinic and to question the extrapolation of transference to social research. The paper concludes with a consideration of generalized transference outside the clinic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Transference. Its meaning and function in psychoanalytic therapy.

Reviews the book, Transference. Its meaning and function in psychoanalytic therapy by Benjamin Wolstein. Introduction by Clara Thompson (1954). After a lucid introduction by Clara Thompson, which summarizes historical trends in the concept of transference, the author clarifies the objectives of the monograph. Essentially this is a critical study, by no means pretending to be a comprehensive survey of the field. There is an initial attempt to orient the reader toward certain basic scientific postulates from which the conception of transference is derived. Wolstein attempts to orient the reader toward the essential philosophical assumptions which underlie the theoretical constructs of Freud, who worked essentially in the atmosphere of a mechanistic, monistic, reductive scientific world. This is undoubtedly a difficult, somewhat overwritten, and occasionally exasperating book, but it is a brilliant one that raises important issues, faces up to them squarely, and goes to the core of many problems in current psychotherapeutic theory and technique. Practicing therapists, personality theorists, social scientists, and advanced graduate students will find it stimulating and provocative of serious self-searching. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A memorial essay on Merton Max Gill (1914-1994).

Reviews the book, Psychoanalysis in transition: A personal view by Merton M. Gill (see record 1994-98473-000). Merton Gill's final book, subtitled A personal view, may aptly be understood from a retrospective perspective as a fitting presentation of his intellectual memoirs. From that vantage point, Gill's final book conveys a wish that his personal legacy be understood by the public in terms of his evolving contributions to change and new perspectives in the history of psychoanalytic theory and technique, rather than through other details of his personal life. First, in terms of Gill's intended audience, it is clear that he succeeded in his intention to create a work that would be enlightening to both students and beginning clinicians, as well as to the more experienced practitioner. It is also plausible that Gill was writing this book for a third audience, not made explicit, but of great importance to him. This third audience could be understood to be comprised mostly of those who have known him personally, those who have collaborated with him, and the many others who are already familiar with his work and its course of evolution. Psychoanalysis in transition (1994) can be understood as a further examination of Gill's stated basic aim of his earlier monographs on transference in at least two ways: (a) It continues his dialectical effort to examine and synthesize dichotomies in psychoanalytic theory and practice and (b) it extends his views about the need to be alert to here-and-now interactions in the analytic situation and presents an elaboration of Gill's subsequent new metatheory and metapsychology, which he sees as supplanting Freud's "natural science physicoenergic framework." In conclusion, Transitions in psychoanalysis stands as an evocative and insightful final statement of Merton Gill's perceptions of the broad landscape of ongoing, major psychoanalytic controversies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Encounters with great psychologists: Twelve dramatic portraits.

Reviews the book, Encounters with great psychologists: Twelve dramatic portraits by John H. Kunkel (see record 1989-97254-000). John Kunkel has given us a new form of fiction, one which is also intended to lure the lay reader toward an appreciation of that scientific enterprise which is Psychology, and, toward an appreciation of the men who have made it what it is today. The book recounts twelve separate fictional discussions, each of which is between an historical figure in Psychology and some largely imaginary others. These others feed each protagonist not only considerable quantities of good food and drink, but they feed convenient questions as well, questions which allow each great man to show us his wisdom, his gentleness, and his love of humanity. Kunkel's book is not all fiction. It is in part a history of psychology in biography. Each narration is preceded by an abbreviated history of the man and his ideas, setting the scene. Each narration is followed by a debriefing, in which some of the fiction is separated from fact and the references that Kunkel used to spawn his romance are shared with the reader in the form of recommended further reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Saying goodbye: A casebook of termination in child and adolescent analysis and therapy.

Reviews the book, Saying goodbye: A casebook of termination in child and adolescent analysis and therapy edited by Anita G. Schmukler (see record 1991-98015-000). Anita Schmukler's new book is comprised of 10 clinical and 6 theoretical papers. Schmukler and her colleagues set themselves the task of exploring and illustrating the theoretical and technical issues involved in ending child analyses. The primary theoretical question under review is, of course, the selection of criteria for terminability. The theoretical articles in this book try to tease out with some specificity the changes in the child and in the sessions themselves that indicate termination is on the horizon. Several articles outline criteria for termination, as indicated both in symptomatic improvement in the outside world and in the evolution of the transference neurosis in the analyst's office. The life and times of children and analysts at work around termination are richly illustrated. All practicing child analysts will recognize the pains and pleasures inherent in their line of work. And all will feel helped by the clarity of conceptualization offered as they think through with their own child patients and their parents the question of when it is time to say goodbye. However, the most important criterion for terminability, the child's expanded capacity to integrate disparate parts of himself or herself and metabolize his or her own experience, is inadequately explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Developing management ability.

Reviews the book "Developing management ability" by Earl G. Planty and J. Thomas Freeston (1954). This book is made up of six hundred questions that vary in scope with answers varying in length from a single sentence to several pages. According to the reviewer, to the person who is looking for answers to many of the questions that arise concerning management development without getting into the theoretical implications or research background, this book can be recommended highly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Constructive evolution: Origins and development of Piaget's thought.

Reviews the book, Constructive evolution: Origins and development of Piaget's thought by Michael Chapman (see record 1988-97990-000). Canadian developmental psychologists have been among the harshest critics, most articulate supporters, and most creative extenders of Piaget's theory. Michael Chapman's book is in this reflective and interpretive tradition. Chapman's primary goal in the book is neither to criticize, support, nor extend Piaget's theory (although he does some of each), but to clarify the meaning of the theory, and to specify its domain of application. Chapman does this by tracing the growth of Piaget's thinking using Piaget's autobiographical papers as a map. The first six chapters comprise Chapman's historical analysis, which begins with Piaget's adolescence, a point in life where Piaget was later to say that cognitive development ends (although he was to retract the claim still later in his career). In the last two chapters of the book, Chapman uses his historical analysis to clarify the philosophical and psychological significance of Piaget's theory. Chapman's book is an excellent integration of Piaget's theory in that it places the theory in the context of the questions that motivated it. But for all the clarity that Chapman's historical analysis brings to Piaget's thought, the analysis opens a number of new questions. What Chapman has done successfully is to provide a view of the nature, limits, and future of Piagetian theory by examining its origins and evolution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychology evolving.

Reviews the book, From neuropsychology to mental structure by Tim Shallice (see record 1989-97122-000). The basic question that the book addresses is "what can be learned about normal function from impaired behaviour?" The author approaches this question in two ways. First, he assumes that cognitive processing is organized into basic processing elements, much like Fodor's modules. The goal is to determine how the modules function together to underlie cognitive processes. Second, Shallice asks how neuropsychological data provide inferences about the nature of the modules. Overall, I liked this book, even if I cannot easily identify with the top-down approach to studying brain function. Nonetheless, this is a volume that will force psychologists of all stripes to think about questions surrounding the study of cognition and brain function. Indeed, one can seriously ask the question of whether cognitive neuropsychology is a natural evolution of Hebb's neuropsychology as opposed to a new and divergent species that will fill a different niche. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Hypnosis--questions and answers.

Reviews the book, Hypnosis--questions and answers edited by Bernie Zilbergeld, M. Gerald Edelstien, and Daniel L. Araoz (1987). The editors of this "friendly reference" have carefully collected and thought out a compendium of questions about hypnosis "that you always wanted to know about but didn't know whom to ask." The answers are presented in an easily readable format. In 489 pages the reader is given cogent replies by outstanding experts. This is a fine book insofar as outstanding experts give sound and succinct answers to some of the most frequently asked questions on hypnosis. Psychotherapists and other health professionals who use hypnosis will find this book very useful as a reference source for authoritative and scientific answers to the 84 questions that are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)