About the Book
This book focuses on the question of the theory of therapeutic action underlying the multiple perspectives in psychoanalysis. The question of how psychoanalysis effects therapeutic change and the methods by which this change is achieved is answered from the perspectives of: ego psychology and modern conflict theory, classical theory, contemporary object relations theory and neo-Kleinian theory, attachment theory, and self psychological theory, as well as total composite theory and pluralistic perspectives. The volume concludes with an exploration of how these theories of therapeutic action diverge and converge, and ultimately what holds these diverse approaches within the boundaries of psychoanalysis.
About the Author :
Christopher Christian, PhD, is member, Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies; graduate of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), New York; assistant professor of psychology, New School for Social Research; and director of the New School/Beth Israel Center for Clinical Training and Research at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. He has a private practice in Manhattan. Michael J. Diamond, PhD, is training and supervising analyst and faculty member, Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies; faculty member, Wright Institute, Los Angeles; and associate clinical professor of psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles. His major publications are on psychoanalytic technique, psychoanalytic gender theory, treatment of early trauma and dissociation, and fathering and masculinity.
Review :
In this highly praised volume, West Coast psychoanalytic clinician-scholars reflect on essential ideas about the "mechanisms of change" that makes psychoanalysis work. Building bridges between diverse schools is but one of the many advantages accruing from the study of therapeutic action in psychoanalysis and in this book, each chapter author brings an open-minded, independent thinking albeit Freudian-grounded perspective, balancing tradition with innovation, that reflects both considerable depth and breadth of psychoanalytic understanding as to the vicissitudes of analytic treatment.From a range of theoretical perspectives, the authors emphasize diverse ways by which the therapeutic aims of analysis are achieved. Each author strives to be cognizant of the limitations and ironies inherent in the concept of "cure" as well as the overly deterministic nature of many accounts of therapeutic action. At the same time, most contend that the mutative process involves both the achievement of insight through interpretation, (i.e., insight/understanding) and the internalization of the relationship with the analyst (i.e., relational/attachment factors). Each author presents his or her unique perspective on therapeutic action but all would seem to agree that it no longer makes sense to represent the analytic process in a split or bifurcated manner; in other words, the analyst must be both a transference object, subject to interpretive work, and a new object, subject to internalization. In their independent-minded, inclusive, and scholarly manner, the authors continue the rich tradition of building upon and adding to (rather than replacing) the fundamental, everlasting, and amply demonstrated tenets of psychoanalytic knowledge, theory, and technique.Contributors: Hedda Bolgar, Christopher Christian, Michael J. Diamond, Morris Eagle, Tom Helscher, Nancy Hollander, Beth Kalish, Peggy Porter, Stephen Portuges, Leo Rangell, Linda Sobelman, Alan Spivak, and Peter Wolson.'This inspired collection of essays written by faculty members of the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies (LAISPS) reviews core issues of psychoanalysis through new lenses while having the energy and passion of discussions behind it. Of immediate use to many in the field while offering a major contribution to psychoanalytic studies, the book clearly celebrates this distinctive psychoanalytical society while bringing the renewing visions of West Coast psychoanalysis to the world of psychoanalysis at large.'- Christopher Bollas, Ph.D., author, The Evocative Object World and The Infinite Question'Diamond and Christian have assembled a rich array of thoughtful and evocative clinical papers. The book is a marvelous collection of deep and thought provoking chapters, some of which alone are worth the price of the volume and more. Several chapters read like wonderful literature while at the same time adding significantly to our clinical understanding, while other chapters are so convincingly written that I found myself almost able to embrace ideas different from my own.'- Steven J. Ellman, Ph.D., author, When Theories Touch: A Historical and Theoretical Integration of Psychoanalytic Thought and Freud's Technique Papers: A Contemporary Perspective'Europeans are used to thinking about North American psychoanalysis as an archipelago of groups rather isolated from one another. In this innovative and very interesting text, we see influential Californian psychoanalysts accomplishing a great choral work to integrate the different theoretical-clinical trends with convincing and deeply harmonious results.'- Stefano Bolognini, M.D., President, Italian Psychoanalytic Society and author, Secret Passages: The Theory and Technique of Interpsychic Relations'Diamond and Christian's timely and well organized volume brings together a collection of thoughtful and engaging reflections on the nature of therapeutic change that take into account intrapsychic and intersubjective factors, insight and relationship, and the uniquencess of the individual dyad. This book will deepen our study of these healing processes.'- Lewis Aron, Ph.D., Director, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis, author, A Meeting of Minds: Mutuality in Psychoanalysis, and founder & Associate Editor, Psychoanalytic Dialogues'This unique, timely, and up to date collection of original papers on the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis by renowned senior clinicians and theoreticians from Los Angeles is the only volume of which I am aware that has under a single cover such theoretical and clinical richness on the vital importance of the rationale for and conduct of our lengthy, painstaking, and ambitious method of treatment.'- Melvin R. Lansky, M.D., author, Fathers Who Fail: Shame and Psychopathology in the Family System and Post Traumatic Nightmares: Psychodynamic Explorations'The papers in this volume provide one of the best available overviews of contemporary thinking about therapeutic action. This book will engage and inform anybody who is interested in the current state of clinical theory in psychoanalysis and dynamic psychotherapy by challenging us to think about what we do, why we do it, and what effect we are having on our patients.'- Jay Greenberg, Ph.D., author, Oedipus and Beyond: A Clinical Theory, and Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory (with Stephen Mitchell), and editor, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly
