Empathic Attunement: The 'Technique' of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology

Heinz Kohut systematized the experience-near empathic vantage point as the basic structure upon which the treatment process is built. In other words, there can be no treatment (understanding and explaining) without adhering to and employing this empathic stance: the analyist learns, organizes his theories, and directs his explanations to what the patient is experiencing. He does not attempt to persuade, direct, or impose no matter how convinced he is of his own understandings. The analyst keeps in mind that interventions are at best approximations of the truth, and subject to continuous correction by the patient. In this way there is a mutual learning process, not one in which the analyst attempts to get the patient to accept an interpretation through some form of negotiation of different positions, in an effort to arrive at a meeting of the minds. Empathy is used not for gratification but rather for understanding and explaining. The mirroring and idealizing needs are understood and analyzed, not actively gratified through some verbal or nonverbal evaluative "pat on the back".

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Chapter I: Understanding from the Vantage Point of the Patient's Experience Chapter 2 Kohut the Man Chapter 3 Empathy?Its Definition and Functions Chapter 4 The Selfobject Concept and Selfobject Transference Chapter 5 Stages in the Development of the Self Chapter 6 Chapter II: Treatment in Self Psychology Chapter 7 Transmuting Internalization Chapter 8 Mental Health and Illness Chapter 9 The Place of Drives in Self Psychology Chapter 10 Defense and Resistance Chapter 11 Dreams Chapter 12 The Curative Process Chapter 13 Chapter III: Clinical Applications of Self Psychology Chapter 14 Kohut's Two Analyses of Mr. Z. Chapter 15 Treatment of a Narcissistic Personality Disorder: The Case of Ms. O. Chapter 16 Expanding Attunement to the Patient's Shifting Experience: The Case of Ms. O. Chapter 17 Development of the Therapeutic Process: The Case of Ms. O. Chapter 18 More Specific Understanding: The Case of Ms. O. Chapter 19 Treatment of a Borderline Personality Disorder: The Case of Mr. V. Chapter 20 Development of the Therapeutic Process: The Case of Mr. V. Chapter 21 More Specific Understanding: The Case of Mr. V. Chapter 22 The Empathic-Introspective Approach

About the Author :
Crayton E. Rowe, Jr. is a member and training analyst for The New York Freudian Society and the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. He is a founding member of the New York Institute for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology. Dr. Rowe is the founder and past chair of the National Membership Committee on Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work and member of the International Psychoanalytical Association. Dr. Rowe is a clinical supervisor at the University Settlement Consultation Center and maintains a private practice in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in New York City. David S. Mac Isaac is a section one member of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association. He is a board member of the Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy of New Jersey and a founding member of the New York Institute for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology. He maintains a private practice in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in Englewood, New Jersey.

Review :
Empathic Attunement carefully leads the reader from the earliest of Kohut's observations through the newly developing theory and into detailed case reports. . . . At the same time, the thoughts of the treating clinician provide a running commentarythat is invaluable in demonstrating the constant and fertile interplay between theory and practice, or, in Kohutian terms, between understanding and explaining. In an admirably self-revealing manner that does not hide countertransferences, the authors invite the reader to learn by empathic participation. This is a book that will appeal to beginners and to experienced practitioners alike. It can be recommended to all... The authors take beginners by the hand and walk them through the details of the contributions of Heinz Kohut in a simple, direct, masterly, and easy-to-follow fashion. They have digested Kohut's work, made it their own, and through their clinical examples, sensitively bring their readers step by step inside their clinical experiences. They share this in an open, sound, and pedagogically appealing fashion. They are as empathic with their readers as they are with their patients—a most felicitous combination...