Introduction: Psychoanalysis and sexuality.

Articles originally presented at the 18th annual spring meeting of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association collected in an issue of Psychoanalytic Psychology are introduced. The title of the conference was Psychoanalysis and sexuality: Reflections on an old love affair, and articles selected address aspects of this theme. Included in the issue are contributions from R. Schafer (1999a, 1999b), O. Renik (1999), D. Kriegman (1999), D. Schwartz (1999), M. O. Slavin (1999), H. G. Russ (1999), and J. K. Ogden (1999). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consilient Psychoanalysis.

The concept of consilience, that is, the fundamental unity of knowledge across disciplines, is applied to the field of psychoanalysis. Whereas practitioners in other disciplines, especially the natural sciences, strive for consilience, psychoanalysis as a discipline is found to be frequently lacking in consilience. Implications for paradigm change, metatheory, and evidence-based practice are discussed, and it is suggested that all psychoanalytic theories should be evaluated for their degree of consilience so as to make the discipline as robust and well integrated with knowledge in other disciplines as possible. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud, Psychoanalysis and Symbolism: Book review.

Review of book: Agnes Petocz (Au.) Freud, Psychoanalysis and Symbolism. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1999, 284 pp. Reviewed by Nigel Mackay. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis and the disenfranchised: Countertransference issues.

This article examines basic psychoanalytic principles and their applications to the understanding and treatment of individuals not historically included in psychoanalytic formulations. It looks at the impact of culture, ethnicity, and class, but particularly poverty. The hope is to develop successful application of psychoanalytic theory and technique to the psychological problems of people living in poverty. Careful examination of their psychological reality may offer a unique opportunity to broaden vision of assessment to what constitutes dysfunctional condition, the concept of adaptation, the development of the working alliance, the nature of resistance and transference reactions, and the like. The analyst's personal discomfort, motivations, and stubborn adherence to specific theoretical and technical stances are considered the most damaging obstacles in this endeavor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis as the Idiosyncratic Science of the Individual Subject.

The author examines the scientific status of psychoanalysis from a new angle. Two questions guide the inquiry: what a science is and what psychoanalysis is the science of. If it is supposed to be a global science of mind, where mind is shared by and generalizable over the population of human individuals, its status as science is vulnerable to challenge. The challenge can be circumvented by reconceptualizing psychoanalysis as a set of local theories (metatheoretically linked) applicable to idiosyncratic cases. Every patient is a new world, whose laws it is the task of the analyst to establish and apply. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transference and countertransference in the lawyer-client relationship: Psychoanalysis applied in estate planning.

Transference and countertransference forces in the lawyer-client relationship can interfere with the successful completion of the legal work the client retained the lawyer to perform. In such instances, a working knowledge of the concepts of transference and countertransference can aid lawyers in recognizing and managing these forces when they threaten to be disruptive. In more complex cases, a consultation with a psychoanalyst can be highly beneficial to the lawyer in understanding and working with the transferences and countertransferences at play. Two cases from an estate planning law practice are presented to illustrate transference-countertransference dynamics in the lawyer-client relationship as well as how psychoanalytic education and consultation can help lawyers avoid enactments that lead to stalemates and failures in legal practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Marital Status of Psychoanalysis and Learning Theory.

The union of psychoanalytic and learning theory, so strenuously promoted in recent years, may prove to be not much more compatible in certain respects than many another shotgun marriage. Through some peculiar phenomena of isolation, repression, or fixation upon goal object, fundamental areas of disagreement have been enthusiastically neglected. This comment provides a closer look at these areas of contention. Two levels of disagreement are evident here: (a) the factual disagreement as to where the punishments and rewards occur; (b) the theoretical disagreement as to whether the immediate or the long-term consequence has the determining effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis: Legitimate and illegitimate concerns.

R. F. Bornstein (2001) points to real problems but underestimates what is going on now clinically and scientifically, exaggerates the past acceptance, and undervalues the scientific value of clinical observations. He ignores the role of economic factors in determining the status of psychoanalysis. He rejects repression, castration anxiety, penis envy, free association, and dream analysis. Clinical observations from World War II, ordinary clinical practice, and experiments amply demonstrate the phenomena of repression (painful memories, fantasies, impulses, feelings, or connections being kept out of awareness). Free association and dream analyses are powerful therapeutic techniques. Castration anxiety and penis envy (not innate) can sometimes be observed. Psychoanalysis includes powerful ideas and effective therapy as experienced by patients and reflected in research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Critique of Relational Psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis today is largely a psychology of consciousness: Post- and neo-Freudians form a marginalized community within North America in comparison to contemporary relational and intersubjective theorists, who emphasize the phenomenology of lived conscious experience, dyadic attachments, affective attunement, social construction, and mutual recognition over the role of insight and interpretation. Despite the rich historical terrain of theoretical variation and advance, many contemporary approaches have displaced the primacy of the unconscious. Notwithstanding the theoretical hairsplitting that historically occurs across the psychoanalytic domain, one is beginning to see with increasing force and clarity what S. Mitchell and L. Aron (1999) referred to as the emergence of a new tradition, namely, relational psychoanalysis. Having its edifice in early object relations theory, the British middle school and American interpersonal traditions, and self psychology, relationality is billed as "a distinctly new tradition" (Mitchell & Aron, 1999, p. x). What is being labeled as the American middle group of psychoanalysis (C. Spezzano, 1997), relational and intersubjective theory have taken center stage. It may be argued, however, that contemporary relational and intersubjective perspectives have failed to be properly critiqued from within their own school of discourse. The scope of this article is largely preoccupied with tracing (a) the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary relational theory, (b) its theoretical relation to traditional psychoanalytic thought, (c) clinical implications for therapeutic practice, and (d) its intersection with points of consilience that emerge from these traditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis and its critics.

This article discusses the question of the basis of changes in psychoanalytic concepts, theory, and treatment. Illustrative examples discussed include the "widening scope" of the use of "parameters" in psychoanalytic treatment; the rejection of the "Enlightenment Vision" and the concomitant de-emphasis on the role of insight; the concept of "narrative truth"; and the "totalistic" reconceptualization of the meaning of countertransferase. I then discuss the relationship between research and clinical practice and argue that if it is to grow, psychoanalysis must be open to and attempt to integrate findings from other related disciplines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some Controversies Regarding the Teaching of Psychoanalysis: Comment on Mendelsohn (2005).

Eric Mendelsohn (2005) emphasizes the value of analysts' learning from patients, optimal ways of working with them psychoanalytically. He exhibits a healthy skepticism about traditional methods of learning to be a psychoanalyst, with particular caution about identifying with strong teachers or all-too-clear systems of thought. He fears this may inadvertently create a kind of fundamentalism and a parallel loss of analytic spontaneity. The author agrees with much of Mendelsohn's thesis but has some concern about going too far in the direction of promoting spontaneity, as this ethos too can reflect an inclination to idealize charismatic teachers who specialize in breaking the rules. He suggests that an emphasis on analytic spontaneity is best acquired after some reasonable period of working as at least a somewhat reserved and cautious young analyst. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis, feminism, and the politics of exclusion: A rejoinder.

In a book review published in this journal, Fine (see record 2003-05429-013) criticized Lerner's (see record 2006-00700-000) The Dance of Anger: A Woman's Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships and raised broader concerns about the popularization of psychological ideas and about feminist psychoanalytic theory. This rejoinder takes issue with his criticisms, arguing that there is a legitimate place for careful popular presentation of psychological knowledge and that feminist psychoanalytic writings represent a serious and thoughtful body of theoretical work. (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)     

Psychoanalysis in the undergraduate curriculum: The treatment of psychoanalytic theory in abnormal psychology texts.

Reviews 4 books on the topic of psychoanalytic theory in abnormal psychology texts. The purpose of this review is to encourage this process by evaluating some of the resources available for academic psychologists to teach psychoanalysis to undergraduate psychology students. The reviewer reviews several texts commonly employed in teaching undergraduate abnormal psychology and psychopathology courses, with the aim of evaluating the extent to which they accurately reflect the breadth and complexity of psychoanalytic thought as it applies to these areas of inquiry. The books reviewed here were chosen on the basis of two criteria: (a) They are popular, widely used undergraduate abnormal psychology texts; and (b) they represent a range of perspectives on psychoanalysis, with some books written from a psychodynamic perspective, and others generally opposed to the psychoanalytic view. Each text is reviewed in three general areas. First, the reviewer evaluates the extent to which each thoroughly and accurately discusses basic psychoanalytic theory as it presents various models of mental functioning. Treatment of key psychoanalytic concepts such as ego development and defenses, compromise formation, symptom substitution, fixation and regression, and the psychosexual stages is evaluated, as is the extent to which each work attempts to integrate the object-relations perspective into its discussion. Second, the reviewer reviews each text's presentation of the psychodynamic model for selected areas of psychopathology (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, addiction and addictive behaviors, character pathology, and sexual disorders). Finally, the extent to which each work discusses the relationship of basic psychoanalytic theory to the use of projective tests such as the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is considered, as is each text's treatment of psychoanalytic concepts underlying the development of the medical model and the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III, 1980). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Interpretation and interaction: Psychoanalysis or psychotherapy?

Reviews the book, Interpretation and interaction: Psychoanalysis or psychotherapy? by Jerome D. Oremland (see record 1991-98021-000). This theoretically provocative and clinically substantive monograph cogently addresses the important and complex issues concerning the relationship between psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. The essentials of each are examined in terms of the relative contribution of the two variables entering into all therapeutic endeavors--interpretation and interaction. The author's thesis stems from his viewing Merton Gill's seminal work distinguishing psychoanalysis and psychotherapy as too inclusive. There are minor editorial mistakes involving spelling errors, typos, and omissions (e.g., Chapter 6 is not listed in the contents). Some readers may be put off by the author's tendency to make unequivocal and authoritative pronouncements as well as the psychoanalytically institutional context for many of the observations. Minor limitations notwithstanding, this is an important and easily read, integrative work that advances psychoanalytic psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transference: Psychic reality and material reality.

This article explores the impact of material reality in the form of the analyst's unrecognized and enacted countertransference on a patient's psychic reality (PR) as it presents in the transference. PR refers to a patient's experience in the transference and to an organization of unconscious fantasies, encoded as compromise formations, that actively structures the present and can be inferred from the data of psychoanalysis. Clinical material is presented in support of the author's belief that PR plays the central role in the construction of the transference and that material reality can influence both the nature and form of the transference through the activation or inhibition of different sets of fantasies in the analyst and the patient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the "Music of Thought": The Use of Metaphor in Poetry and in Psychoanalysis.

The author considers the clinical use of metaphor--when psychoanalytic psychotherapists move intentionally to figurative and comparative language in talking with their patients--by comparing it to the use of metaphor in poetry. Both poets and psychoanalysts, despite the differences in the aims of their arts, rely on this way of speaking in order to evoke, discover, and create meaning. A consideration of the way therapists use metaphors sheds some light on essential clinical processes--and on the current debate between "classical" and "post-modern" ways of understanding what psychoanalysts do. (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 Power of Feelings: Personal Meaning in Psychoanalysis, Gender, and Culture: Book review.

Review of book: Nancy J. Chodorow (Au.) The Power of Feelings: Personal Meaning in Psychoanalysis, Gender, and Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999, 320 pp. Reviewed by L. M. Zabarenko. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)