Psychoanalytic Case Studies from an Interpersonal-Relational Perspective

Psychoanalytic Case Studies from an Interpersonal-Relational Perspective contains reports of long-term treatments, including many dialogues and dreams, with commentaries following each one. Drawing from theories that have been developed since Freud, the analysts focus on problems in living as opposed to diagnoses and repressed sexual and aggressive urges. They also express their own feelings towards patients and even their own dreams. The cases themselves include sexual abuse, a man whose father killed his mother, a change in sexual orientation, as well as those of depression, physical problems, and difficulties relating interpersonally, such as fear of rejection and rejecting help. Actual dialogues of sessions are featured, so that readers can see what takes place in psychoanalysis. The analysts here draw from theories of Sullivan, Fromm, Horney, and Fromm-Reichmann, Kohut, Winnicott, and more recently Levenson, Mitchell, Bromberg, Donnell Stern, and Aron, to name a few. Most contemporary case reports come from short-term therapies and many rely on techniques of changing conscious cognitions and encouraging new behaviors. The treatments in this book, while often including such interventions, explore more in-depth processes that may be unconscious and related to transferential expectations from previous relationships, encouraging new experiences and not simply explanations. Psychoanalytic Case Studies from an Interpersonal-Relational Perspective will be of great interest to interpersonal and relational psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists in clinical practice.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Rebecca C. Curtis Chapter 1 Mark the Leper Robert Akeret Commentary by Eric Dammann Chapter 2 A Change in Sexual Orientation: A Case of Pseudo-Relatedness Nickolas Samstag Commentary by Robert Watson Chapter 3 The Curative Power of an Interpersonal Approach in the Treatment of a Patient Whose Father Killed His Mother Helen Quinones Commentaries by Suzanne Little and John O’Leary Chapter 4 Defying Destiny: Genetically Doomed? Olga Cheselka Commentary by Daniel Gensler Chapter 5 The Dance of Dissociation in Healing Trauma Heather MacIntosh Commentary by Sue Kolod Chapter 6 Surviving Sexual Abuse: A Chameleon in the Mirror Alyson Feit Commentary by Elizabeth Hegeman Chapter 7 Failure to Thrive: An Eye for the I, and an Ear for the Here Sigalit Levy Commentary by Ira Moses Chapter 8 Faced with Death: Death in the Countertransference Orsoly Hunyady Commentary by Cory Chen Chapter 9 A Lost, Depressed Woman: Love, Narcissus and Echo Carol Valentin Commentary by David Braucher Chapter 10 Rejection by a Boyfriend. . . From Idealizing Transference to "Real" Partner Jenny Kahn Kaufman Commentary by Peter Kaufman Chapter 11 Tolerating Vulnerability: First at Age Ten, Then at Fifty Evelyn Hartman Commentary by Brent Willock

About the Author :
Rebecca Coleman Curtis, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Adelphi University and Faculty, William Alanson White Institute, is author of Desire, Self, Mind and the Psychotherapies: Unifying Psychological Science and Psychoanalysis, editor of Self-Defeating Behaviors and the Relational Self, and co-editor of books on change, death, loneliness, taboos, identity, and failure resilience.

Review :
"Psychoanalytic Case Studies from an Interpersonal-Relational Perspective is a unique collection of a large variety of long-term treatments. Each case story emerges from the encounter between two persons, each with their own voice, personality and story, and is punctuated by enactments and crises, taking shape in the folds of the relational unconscious in an atmosphere of spontaneity, uncertainty, and openness which ultimately favors reflection and mutual definition. The collection is enriched by a third voice, the one of another analyst, who detects the empathic failures and reviews the turning points, reframing each case story in theoretical terms with the purpose of illustrating the Interpersonal-Relational method. I strongly recommend this book, which is engaging, easy to read, and highly instructive."-Carlo Bonomi, PhD., Training and supervising analyst of the Italian Society of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Sándor Ferenczi (SIPP-SF), and President of the International Sándor Ferenczi Network (ISFN). "The interpersonal and relational points of view represent the most vibrant branches of psychoanalytic thought today. They also are the furthest from the versions of psychoanalysis that many students learn today in training programs where psychoanalysis is presented in a dismissive and caricatured way. These detailed accounts of long term cases will contribute usefully to challenging those caricatures."-Paul L. Wachtel, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Doctoral program in clinical psychology, City College of New York, author of Relational Theory and the Practice of Psychotherapy and Cyclical Psychodynamics and the Contextual Self. "What do we need today in our discipline? Exactly what this book provides: detailed reports of long-term treatments, with the words of both patients and therapists and commentaries on the therapeutic process. In this way, theories come alive, are "embodied" in clinical cases, and explained to the reader. This book should be read by all trainees, and will be greatly appreciated by experienced therapists as well."-Paolo Migone, M.D., Editor, Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, www.psicoterapiaescienzeumane.it. "Psychoanalytic Case Studies from an Interpersonal-Relational Perspective is a unique collection of a large variety of long-term treatments. Each case story emerges from the encounter between two persons, each with their own voice, personality and story, and is punctuated by enactments and crises, taking shape in the folds of the relational unconscious in an atmosphere of spontaneity, uncertainty, and openness which ultimately favors reflection and mutual definition. The collection is enriched by a third voice, the one of another analyst, who detects the empathic failures and reviews the turning points, reframing each case story in theoretical terms with the purpose of illustrating the Interpersonal-Relational method. I strongly recommend this book, which is engaging, easy to read, and highly instructive."-Carlo Bonomi, PhD., Training and supervising analyst of the Italian Society of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Sándor Ferenczi (SIPP-SF), and President of the International Sándor Ferenczi Network (ISFN). "The interpersonal and relational points of view represent the most vibrant branches of psychoanalytic thought today. They also are the furthest from the versions of psychoanalysis that many students learn today in training programs where psychoanalysis is presented in a dismissive and caricatured way. These detailed accounts of long term cases will contribute usefully to challenging those caricatures."-Paul L. Wachtel, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Doctoral program in clinical psychology, City College of New York, author of Relational Theory and the Practice of Psychotherapy and Cyclical Psychodynamics and the Contextual Self. "What do we need today in our discipline? Exactly what this book provides: detailed reports of long-term treatments, with the words of both patients and therapists and commentaries on the therapeutic process. In this way, theories come alive, are "embodied" in clinical cases, and explained to the reader. This book should be read by all trainees, and will be greatly appreciated by experienced therapists as well."-Paolo Migone, M.D., Editor, Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, www.psicoterapiaescienzeumane.it.