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Countertransference

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Psychology	82%
Medical Sciences	13%

Distribution within Psychology

Psychotherapy & Counseling	42%
Clinical Psychology	29%

Selected Abstracts

TRANSFERENCE, COUNTERTRANSFERENCE, SOCIETY AND CULTURE: BEFORE AND DURING THE FIRST ENCOUNTER

BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY, Issue 4 2001
Antonio Suman
ABSTRACT Our contribution focuses on the first encounter with the patient and on the social and cultural context in which it takes place; we believe that psycho-therapy begins with the very first encounter, whether or not it leads to a therapeutic relationship. Before the first encounter, the patient produces conscious and unconcious fantasies, sometimes even dreams, about the therapy, the therapist and the encounter itself; these fantasies constitute a sort of preformed, cultural transference. Besides the preformed transference, an actual transference relationship begins to develop, becoming activated in the patient by contact with the real person of the therapist, and in the therapist by contact with the real person of the patient, blending with the culturally preformed transference. This primitive transference can rapidly determine the outcome of the first encounter as well as of the actual project of entering therapy. [source]

From Countertransference to Social Theory: A Study of Holocaust Thinking in U.S. Business Dress

ETHOS, Issue 3 2000
Professor Howard F. Stein
Observer countertransference is discussed as the nexus of ethnographic knowing. Psychoanalytic approaches are situated in relation to embodiment theory and knowing via the senses. Alongside the official view of managed social change as "nothing personal, just business," U.S. workers draw upon Holocaust imagery to make sense of what is happening to them. Several ethnographic vignettes from the U.S. workplaces constitute the evidential core of the paper. Observer countertransference is seen as a vital instrumentfor comprehending the psychic reality behind the invocation of Holocaust images that are camouflaged by business euphemisms. More broadly, observer countertransference, judiciously used, (1) serves as a bridge between cultural levels (say, individual, workplace, nation) and (2) contributes to the wider interpretation of culture. [source]

Good grief and not-so-good grief: Countertransference in bereavement therapy

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2007
Jeffrey A. Hayes
This study examined the relationship between therapists' grief related to the death of a loved one and clients' perceptions of the process of bereavement therapy. Mail survey data were obtained from 69 client,therapist dyads. Results indicated that the extent to which therapists missed deceased loved ones was inversely related to client perceptions of therapist empathy, but not to client ratings of the alliance, session depth, or therapist credibility. Therapist acceptance of the death of a loved one was unrelated to any of the dependent measures. Results are discussed in terms of countertransference and its management. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 63: 345,355, 2007. [source]

Rational and irrational aspects of countertransference

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 8 2001
Albert Ellis
Countertransference in therapy stems from biological tendencies and social learning influences that involve mild or heavy prejudiced thinking, feeling, and behaving. Several reasons are given why it is almost inevitable and has both beneficial and destructive aspects,not either/or but both/and. It is hypothesized that therapists can well make good use of countertransference if they strive to employ it in a preferential, experimental rather than an absolutist musturbating manner. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol/In Session 57: 999,1004, 2001. [source]

Feelings in context: Countertransference and the real world in feminist therapy

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 8 2001
Laura S. Brown
The concept of countertransference has been seen as problematic by feminist therapists. However, feminist therapy theory is intensely interested in the symbolic levels of the relationships between therapists and clients, with an emphasis on how the here and now social context informs and transforms those symbols. This article describes a feminist perspective on the therapist's symbolic relationships to clients, and the positive and challenging ramifications of those symbolic encounters. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol/In Session 57: 1005,1012, 2001. [source]

Psychic Assaults and Frightened Clinicians: Countertransference in Forensic Settings

JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 7 2009
RICHARD LAKEMAN dipnsg bn ba (hons) pg dip (psychotherapy)
[source]

Countertransference to psychiatric patients in a clinical setting: Development of the Feeling Checklist,Japanese version

PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES, Issue 6 2006
FUJIKA KATSUKI rn
Abstract, Countertransference is an important dimension of the therapeutic alliance between care providers and patients. The Feeling Checklist (FC) is a self-report questionnaire for the assessment of countertransference by hospital staff toward patients. The FC was translated from English into Japanese and its factor structure, reliability, and validity in the Japanese version (FC-J) were examined. A total of 281 Japanese psychiatric nurses were tested with the FC-J. All nurses were primarily involved in provision of psychiatric care. Principal-component factor analysis with varimax rotation was performed to identify the potential components of the FC-J. In a factor analysis of the FC-J, seven factors were extracted. The five subscales that were determined and labeled included Reject, Distance, Helpfulness, Closeness, and Involvement, which collectively accounted for 56.0% of the variance. Cronbach's ,, a measure of internal consistency, for individual subscales was 0.833 for Reject, 0.763 for Distance, 0.768 for Helpfulness, 0.617 for Closeness, and 0.663 for Involvement. Notably, there was a significant correlation between the FC-J and the Nurse Attitude Scale (P < 0.0001). Moreover, one-way anova was performed with each FC-J subscale to examine differences among psychiatric diagnoses in the study sample. A significant difference was found for Involvement (P < 0.001), with the total score on Involvement being the highest in the personality disorder group. These results are considered to verify the reliability and validity of the FC-J as a scale to measure countertransference among Japanese care providers. The use of this scale allows individual care providers to recognize and be cognizant of their own countertransference objectively and thereby contributes to improve the relationship between patients and care providers. [source]

On the edge: The psychoanalyst's transference,

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 5 2007
Aira Laine
Countertransference is a central topic in analytic work and in the literature. The concept of countertransference includes a basic question which has been understood in different ways. The author attempts to differentiate between the psychoanalyst's transference and his countertransference in the analytic process. It is hard to draw a line between them; analysts are always on the edge. The analyst's transference will be explored and described using three approaches: narcissism, regression profile and the analyst's phase of life. Regression profile is a new concept developed by the author, which may help us to understand the core of the analyst's transference in the analytic situation. She illustrates the topic by clinical vignettes. [source]

Countertransference as active imagination: imaginative experiences of the analyst

THE JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2007
Joy Schaverien
Abstract:, Active imagination is at the heart of Jung's elucidation of depth psychology. Yet, in the discourse of present day analytical psychology theory it is not always given the serious attention accorded to some other Jungian concepts. Active imagination emerges spontaneously within the ,third' area,the imaginal or dynamic field,in-between patient and analyst. It is commonly regarded as the patient's experience but I am proposing that, looked upon as the analyst's experience as well, active imagination offers a distinctly Jungian way of understanding some forms of countertransference. I am describing what I think many present-day analytical psychologists already do in their clinical practice but, as far as I know, it has not been theorized in quite this way before. The intention is to exploit the unique contribution of our Jungian heritage by reframing certain profoundly symbolic countertransference-generated imagery as active imagination. In this article these are differentiated from other less complex forms of imaginative countertransference through examples from clinical practice. The point is that such countertransference experiences may activate the symbolic function in the analyst and thus contribute to the mediation of emergent consciousness in the analysand. Translations of Abstract L'imagination active est au coeur de l'exploration de la psychologie des profondeurs menée par Jung. Et pourtant, le discours théorique de la psychologie analytique actuelle ne lui concède pas toujours la même attention sérieuse accordée à d'autres concepts jungiens. L'imagination active émerge spontanément dans l'aire du « tiers », le champ imaginal ou dynamique entre patient et analyste. Elle est communément envisagée comme l'expérience du patient, mais je propose qu'elle soit également considérée comme l'expérience de l'analyste. En tant que telle, elle constitue alors une modalité spécifiquement jungienne pour appréhender certaines formes de contretransfert. Je décris ce que sans doute de nombreux analystes mettent déjà en oeuvre dans leur pratique clinique, mais pour autant que je sache, cela n'a pas encore été théorisé de la sorte à ce jour. Mon objectif est de redéfinir une certaine imagerie, profondément symbolique, générée par le contretransfert, comme relevant de l'imagination active et de la distinguer de formes moins complexes de contretransfert imaginatif. Un tel matériel contretransférentiel est susceptible d'activer chez l'analyste la fonction symbolique et de contribuer ainsi à médiatiser l'émergence de la conscience chez l'analysant. C'est une façon de tirer parti de l'apport unique de notre héritage jungien. Aktive Imagination ist ein Kernstück von Jungs Verständnis der Tiefenpsychologie. Jedoch wird im Diskurs der gegenwärtigen analytischen Psychologie dieser Theorie nicht immer die ernstliche Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt, die anderen Jung'schen Konzepten zuteil wird. Aktive Imagination entsteht spontan innerhalb eines ,dritten' Bereiches,dem imaginalen oder dynamischen Feld - zwischen Patient / Patientin und Analytiker / Analytikerin. Sie wird üblicherweise als Patientenerfahrung verstanden, aber ich schlage vor, sie zugleich als Analytikererfahrung anzusehen, weil die aktive Imagination dann einen spezifisch Jung'schen Weg bietet, um einige Formen der Gegenübertragung zu verstehen. Ich beschreibe etwas, von dem ich denke, dass es heutzutage von vielen Jung'schen Analytikern und Analytikerinnen in der klinischen Praxis bereits angewendet wird. Dennoch ist dies, soweit ich weiß, bisher nicht in dieser Form theoretisch dargestellt worden. Die Absicht besteht darin, gewisse, zutiefst symbolische und durch die Gegenübertragung hervorgerufene Bilder als aktive Imagination zu verstehen und zusammenzufassen, und sie so von anderen weniger komplexen Formen der imaginativen Gegenübertragung zu unterscheiden. Diese Gegenübertragungsinhalte können die symbolische Funktion im Analytiker / in der Analytikerin aktivieren und so zur Vermittlung der auftauchenden Bewusstheit im Analysanden / in der Analysandin beitragen. Hierdurch wird ein einzigartiger Beitrag unseres Jung'schen Erbes ausgeschöpft. L'immaginazione attiva è al centro della spiegazione di Jung sella psicologia del profondo. Eppure, nel discorso della teoria analitica di oggi non viene ad essa data la seria attenzione accordata ad altri concetti junghiani. L'immaginazione attiva emerge spontaneamente all'interno della ,terza' area,il campo immaginale o dinamico- tra il paziente e l'analista. Di solito viene considerata come un'esperienza del paziente, ma io propongo che, se considerata anche come un'esperienza dell'analista, l'immaginazione attiva offre un modo particolarmente junghiano per comprendere alcune forme di controtransfert. Sto descrivendo qualcosa che credo gli analisti già fanno ogni giorno nella loro pratica clinica. Tuttavia, per quanto io ne sappia, non è stata teorizzata teorizzata prima in questo modo. L'intenzione è di ridefinire certe immagini che generano un controtransfet profondamente simbolico e di differenziare queste forme da altre forme meno complesse di controtransfert immaginativo. Tale materiale controtransferale può attivare la funzione simbolica nell'analista e contribuire così a mediare la consapevolezza emergente nell'analizzando. Con questo si utilizza un contributo unico della nostra eredità junghiana. La imaginación activa se encuentra en el corazón de la elucidación de Jung de la psicología profunda. Sin embargo, en el discurso de la teoría de la psicología analítica de nuestros días no siempre se le da una atención seria en relación a otros conceptos junguianos. La imaginación activa emerge espontáneamente dentro de la tercera área,el imaginal o campo dinámico,entre paciente y analista, con frecuencia se atribuye a la experiencia del paciente pero estoy proponiendo que se la estudie en relación al analista también, la imaginación activa ofrece un camino junguiano diferente para entender ciertas formas de contratransferencia. Estoy describiendo lo que pienso que muchos analistas hacen en la actualidad en su práctica clínica, De cualquier forma, hasta donde puedo conocer, esto no ha sido teorizado antes de esta forma. La intención es la de enmarcar ciertas imaginerías profundamente simbólicas generadas en la contratransferencia como imaginación activa y diferenciarlas de otras formas mas complejas de imaginería contratransferencial. Este material contratransferencial puede activar la función simbólica en el análisis y contribuir a la mediación emergente de la conciencia el analizando. Ello expresa la singular contribución de nuestra herencia Junguiana. [source]

Psychic Assaults and Frightened Clinicians: Countertransference in Forensic Settings , Edited by John Gordon and Gabriel Kirtchuk

BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY, Issue 2 2009
Anne ZacharyArticle first published online: 1 APR 200
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

Resonance of Suffering: Countertransference in Non-neurotic Structures , Edited by André Green

BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY, Issue 3 2008
Mary Twyman
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

From Countertransference to Social Theory: A Study of Holocaust Thinking in U.S. Business Dress

Good grief and not-so-good grief: Countertransference in bereavement therapy

Identifying the faces in the mirror: Untangling transference and countertransference in self psychology

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 8 2001
James D. Guy
Experienced psychotherapists realize that there are many levels of meaning behind much that is said during the therapeutic hour. The challenge for the competent professional is to become wise enough to learn what to ignore and sensitive enough to know what to emphasize. Sorting this out is at the heart of the practice of good psychotherapy. In this article, we will briefly share our thoughts on this rich but complicated interpersonal interaction using Kohutian self psychology theory to understand the role of countertransference in the process of conducting psychotherapy. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol/In Session 57: 993,997, 2001. [source]

Rational and irrational aspects of countertransference

Feelings in context: Countertransference and the real world in feminist therapy

Psychoeducation for Survivors of Trauma

PERSPECTIVES IN PSYCHIATRIC CARE, Issue 3 2007
Bethany J. Phoenix RN
PURPOSE.,Education about the persistent effects of trauma helps survivors better understand their own stress responses, and knowledge of coping strategies provides a sense of control over these responses. Trauma education for providers can minimize negative countertransference and prevent vicarious traumatization. CONCLUSIONS.,This article discusses content areas to be covered in psychoeducation with survivors of acute traumatic events and prolonged trauma and abuse, and reviews resources for trauma psychoeducation with clients and healthcare providers. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS.,Advanced practice psychiatric nurses may provide psychoeducation to people who suffer from complex psychological and behavioral disturbances related to severe and persistent abuse or trauma, especially early in life. [source]

Countertransference to psychiatric patients in a clinical setting: Development of the Feeling Checklist,Japanese version

An interruption in unconscious communication in the analytic couple

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 1 2010
Hilda María Feuerhake
The authors describe an interruption in communication in the analyses of two patients, which gradually brings the analytic process to a halt/standstill. They propose several hypotheses for understanding this situation. One explanation is mutual identification of primitive superegos in the analytic couple which generates a moralizing effect thereby hindering investigation and discovery. They emphasize the importance of countertransference involvement which partly provokes this particular type of impasse. They also suggest the idea of shared acting out, with complementary participations of analyst and patient. In this way the analytic couple supports a ,bastion' which protects against the risk of breaking the omnipotence of patient and analyst or contributes to this omnipotence. Their shared unconscious phantasy feeds collusion linked to unconscious persecutory guilt. The authors also describe movements to break free from this impasse. The enclave created by the analytic couple is detected and subsequently worked through by way of the patient's contribution of dream material and the analyst's work with her countertransference. [source]

Transformations in dreaming and characters in the psychoanalytic field,

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 2 2009
Antonino Ferro
Having reviewed certain similarities and differences between the various psychoanalytic models (historical reconstruction/development of the container and of the mind's metabolic and transformational function; the significance to be attributed to dream-type material; reality gradients of narrations; tolerability of truth/lies as polar opposites; and the form in which characters are understood in a psychoanalytic session), the author uses clinical material to demonstrate his conception of a session as a virtual reality in which the central operation is transformation in dreaming (de-construction, de-concretization, and re-dreaming), accompanied in particular by the development of this attitude in both patient and analyst as an antidote to the operations of transformation in hallucinosis that bear witness to the failure of the functions of meaning generation. The theoretical roots of this model are traced in the concept of the field and its developments as a constantly expanding oneiric holographic field; in the developments of Bion's ideas (waking dream thought and its derivatives, and the patient as signaller of the movements of the field); and in the contributions of narratology (narrative transformations and the transformations of characters and screenplays). Stress is also laid on the transition from a psychoanalysis directed predominantly towards contents to a psychoanalysis that emphasizes the development of the instruments for dreaming, feeling, and thinking. An extensive case history and a session reported in its entirety are presented so as to convey a living impression of the ongoing process, in the consulting room, of the unsaturated co-construction of an emotional reality in the throes of continuous transformation. The author also describes the technical implications of this model in terms of forms of interpretation, the countertransference, reveries, and, in particular, how the analyst listens to the patient's communications. The paper ends with an exploration of the concepts of grasping (in the sense of clinging to the known) and casting (in relation to what is as yet undefined but seeking representation and transformation) as a further oscillation of the minds of the analyst and the patient in addition to those familiar from classical psychoanalysis. [source]

On: Raiding the inarticulate: The internal analytic setting and listening beyond countertransference

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 3 2008
Michael Parsons
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

The intersubjective links in perversion,

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 5 2007
Alberto Eiguer
The author studies the intersubjective links which the pervert maintains with analyst or partner, attempting to indicate the differences between the investments in each case. Rather than accepting that empathy towards these patients is impossible to achieve and disturbs the countertransference profoundly, it attempts to show that these difficulties may be overcome if they are reinterpreted in the light of the theory of the intersubjective link. The author examines the theories and the practice of intersubjectivity and gives a definition of his approach to the link between two subjects. He applies these ideas to the case of a sexually masochistic female patient. The countertransference is marked successively by indifference, rejection and smothering. The analysis of the analyst's dream allows the situation to evolve. Failures in primary identification can result in domination over others and utilitarianism. The author examines the place of the challenge to the ,Law' and the father (in the attempt by the patient to put a theory to the test) in order to identify the figure of the witness in the pervert's intersubjective links. The desire of the transference would be marked by the figure of the witness rather than by that of the analyst as accomplice. [source]

On the edge: The psychoanalyst's transference,

The analyst's countertransference to the psychoanalytic process,

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 5 2006
MICHAEL PARSONS
There is countertransference, not just to individual patients, but to the process of psychoanalysis itself. The analytic process is a contentious topic. Disagreements about its nature can arise from taking it as a unitary concept that should have a single defi nition whereas, in fact, there are several strands to its meaning. The need for the analyst's free associative listening, as a counterpart to the patient's free associations, implies resistance to the analytic process in the analyst as well as the patient. The author gives examples of the self-analysis that this necessitates. The most important happenings in both the analyst's and the patient's internal worlds lie at the boundary between conscious and unconscious, and the nature of an analyst's interventions depends on how fully what happens at that boundary is articulated in the analyst's consciousness. The therapeutic quality of an analyst's engagement with a patient depends on the freeing and enlivening quality, for the analyst, of the analyst's engagement with his or her countertransference to the analytic process. [source]

Incorporation of an invasive object

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 6 2004
PAUL WILLIAMS
The author discusses the experience of ,being invaded' that is sometimes communicated by certain severely disturbed patients. The complaint can sometimes be couched in terms of bodily suffering and such patients may state that they have the experience of a ,foreign body' inside. It is suggested that these patients have suffered severe early failure of containment of their projections, while at the same time they have incorporated primitive characteristics of the object that have been powerfully projected into them. An object that invades in this way, it is suggested, experiences a compulsive need to expel unbearable states of mind using others as a repository. The infant incorporates these violent projections as part of his own mental representational system, and normal identifi cation processes are disrupted. There follows impairment of the development of the sense of self. Clinical examples of how the invasive experience manifests itself in the analytic setting and in the transference and countertransference are presented. It is argued that this highly complex form of early subject-object interaction (prior to the differentiation of psyche-soma) is more likely to be found in severely narcissistically disturbed individuals. Some refl ections on the origins of invasive phenomena are given. [source]

Narcissistic configurations: Violence and its absence in treatment

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 5 2004
ROSINE JOZEF PERELBERG
,On narcissism: An introduction' constitutes a turning point in psychoanalysis. Although narcissism is a concept which has not been explicitly referred to by many important thinkers for decades, it could be said that there is no paper written in psychoanalysis since Freud that does not implicitly take into account the modifi cations in thinking that the work brought about. In this paper, the author contrasts two types of narcissistic confi gurations: in the fi rst, the intolerance of the other is dealt with by expulsion and violence; in the second, by withdrawal. The author contrasts patients who express manifest violent behaviour with patients for whom the violent behaviour is absent but who, nevertheless, present similar background histories, which might have led to a prediction of violence. They are also profoundly different in terms of what they provoke in the countertransference. In addition, this paper argues that the treatment of narcissistic personalities has allowed in recent years the understanding of a modality of depression. Following Green, the author argues that, instead of a fruitless debate that involves evolutionary issues around the concept of narcissism, it is necessary to distinguish the narcissistic aspect in any analytic relationship, to identify the narcissistic transference in different types of psychopathologies. [source]

Freudian and Lacanian approaches to the clinical case: Listening, interpretation, transference and countertransference,

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 5 2004
MARDY S. IRELAND
First page of article [source]

Power cut in the countertransference

THE JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2010
Alessandra Cavalli
Abstract:, This paper is an attempt to describe and understand a certain type of defence that I shall call a ,power cut' because of its crippling and anti-relational nature. I will take extracts from a baby observation to show how this type of defence can be adopted from the beginning of life, followed by vignettes from my work with a young child and an adult patient which addresses the particular kind of difficulty the analyst has to face with patients who resort to such a defence. I am arguing that while defending from another, the patient is able to destabilize not only the connection between himself and this other, the analyst, but also that between the analyst and the analyst's internal world. I understand this as the violent re-enactment of the patient's uncontained and split off primitive experience. I see recovery from ,power cuts' as the main challenge for the analyst who is helping the patient to recover from an early failure in containment which has led to defective splitting. Only when the unthinkable experience of ,power cut' can become an experience that can be lived through and converted into a deintegrate, may integration be achieved. Translations of Abstract Cet article est une tentative de décrire et de comprendre un certain type de défenses que je nommerai « courts-circuits», du fait de leur nature invalidante et anti-relationnelle. Je présenterai des extraits d'une observation de nourrisson pour montrer comment ce type de défenses peut être adopté dès le début de la vie. Je poursuivrai par des vignettes de mon travail avec un jeune enfant et un patient adulte révélatrices du type de difficultés auxquelles est confronté l'analyste avec des patients relevant de ce type de défenses. Je montre que, tandis qu'il se défend d'un autre, l'individu est capable de déstabiliser non seulement le lien qui le relie à cet autre, l'analyste en l'occurrence, mais également le lien de l'analyste avec son propre monde interne. Je comprends cela comme une violente remise en acte de l'expérience primaire de clivage et d'absence de contenant. J'envisage la guérison des « courts-circuits» comme le défi majeur de l'analyste qui aide le patient à réparer la faille précoce du contenant primaire génératrice du clivage. Ce n'est que lorsque l'expérience impensable du « court-circuit » est devenue une expérience vivable pour le patient, que celle-ci peut se transformer en un dé-intégrat et ouvrir la voie à l'intégration. Dieser Text ist ein Versuch, einen bestimmten Abwehrtypus zu beschreiben und zu verstehen, den ich wegen seiner lähmenden und antibeziehungshaften Natur ,Stromsperre' nennen werde. Ich werde Auszüge aus einer Babybeobachtung heranziehen um zu zeigen, wie dieser Abwehrmodus vom Beginn des Lebens an aufgebaut werden kann. Es folgen Vignetten aus meiner Arbeit mit einem Kleinkind und einem erwachsenen Patienten die sich auf die bestimmte Art von Schwierigkeiten beziehen, die dem Analytiker bei Patienten begegnen, die sich in solcherart Abwehr flüchten. Ich zeige auf, daß, während er sich vor dem anderen schützt, der Patient nicht nur in die Lage gerät, die Verbindung zwischen ihm selbst und diesem anderen, dem Analytiker, zu destabilisieren, sondern auch jene zwischen dem Analytiker und des Analytikers innerer Welt. Ich verstehe dies als die gewaltsame Reinszenierung einer nicht eingebundenen und abgespaltenen primitiven Erfahrung des Patienten. Ich sehe die Behebung von ,Stromsperren' als Hauptherausforderung für den Analytiker an, der dem Patienten hilft, von einem frühen Versagen des Gehaltenwerdens zu genesen, daß zur Spaltung geführt hat. Nur wenn die undenkbare Erfahrung ,Stromsperre' zu einer Erfahrung werden kann, die durchlebt und in ein Nichtintegriertes überführt werden kann, mag Integration erreicht werden. Questo lavoro è un tentativo di descrivere e comprendere un certo tipo di difesa che chiamerò,corto circuito' per via della sua natura mutilante e antirelazionale. Presenterò estratti dall'osservazione del neonato per mostrare come questo tipo di difesa può essere adottata fin dagli inizi della vita seguiti da vignette del mio lavoro con un bambino e con un paziente adulto che indicano il particolare tipo di difficoltà che l'analista deve affrontare con pazienti che si aggrappano a tale difesa. Sostengo che mentre si difende dall'altro il paziente è capace di destabilizzare non solo le connessioni tra se stesso e questo altro, ma anche tra l'analista e il mondo interno dell'analista. Intendo con ciò il violento ripresentarsi della esperienza primaria del paziente non contenuta e scissa. Considero il riprendersi dalla ,corto circuito' come la sfida principale petr l'analista che sta aiutando il paziente a guarire dal precoce fallimento del contenimento che ha portato alla scissione. L'integrazione può essere raggiunta solo quando l'esperienza impensabile della ,corto circuito' può diventare una esperienza che si può attraversare e convertire in una reintegrazione. Este trabajo es una intento por de describir y comprender un cierto tipo de defensa que llamaré un ,corte de energía' a causa de su efecto paralizador y su naturaleza anti-relacional. Tomaré extractos de una observación de un bebé para mostrar cómo este tipo de defensa puede surgir al principio de la vida, seguido por viñetas de mi trabajo con un niño y un paciente adulto para explorar el tipo de dificultad que el analista tiene que encarar con pacientes que recurren a tal defensa. Discuto que al defenderse del otro, el paciente puede desestabilizar no sólo la conexión con él mismo y este otro, el analista, sino también entre el analista y el mundo interno del analista. Entiendo esto como la reconstrucción violenta sin contención y disociadora de la experiencia primitiva del paciente. ,Considero a ,estos cortes de energía' como el principal desafío para el analista que ayuda al paciente a recuperarse de un fracaso temprano en la contención que lo ha llevado a la disociación. Sólo cuando la experiencia inconcebible de ,corte de energía' pueda ser revivida y convertida en una desintegración, se puede lograr la integración. [source]

Psychotherapy in the aesthetic attitude

THE JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
John Beebe
Abstract:, Drawing upon the writings of Jungian analyst Joseph Henderson on unconscious attitudes toward culture that patients and analysts may bring to therapy, the author defines the aesthetic attitude as one of the basic ways that cultural experience is instinctively accessed and processed so that it can become part of an individual's self experience. In analytic treatment, the aesthetic attitude emerges as part of what Jung called the transcendent function to create new symbolic possibilities for the growth of consciousness. It can provide creative opportunities for new adaptation where individuation has become stuck in unconscious complexes, both personal and cultural. In contrast to formulations that have compared depth psychotherapy to religious ritual, philosophic discourse, and renewal of socialization, this paper focuses upon the considerations of beauty that make psychotherapy also an art. In psychotherapeutic work, the aesthetic attitude confronts both analyst and patient with the problem of taste, affects how the treatment is shaped and ,framed', and can grant a dimension of grace to the analyst's mirroring of the struggles that attend the patient's effort to be a more smoothly functioning human being. The patient may learn to extend the same grace to the analyst's fumbling attempts to be helpful. The author suggests that the aesthetic attitude is thus a help in the resolution of both countertransference and transference en route to psychological healing. Translations of Abstract S'appuyant sur les écrits de l'analyste jungien Joseph Henderson sur les attitudes inconscientes vis-à-vis la culture que patient et analyste apportent en thérapie, l'auteur définit l'attitude esthétique comme l'un des moyens élémentaires d'appréhension par la conscience de l'expérience culturelle, celle-ci devenant une part consciente de l'expérience propre d'un individu. Dans le traitement analytique, l'attitude esthétique émerge comme une partie de ce que Jung a nommé la fonction transcendante, apte à créer de nouvelles possibilités symboliques d'accroissement de la conscience. Elle peut offrir des possibilités créatrices d'adaptation nouvelle, là où l'individuation s'est enlisée dans les complexes inconscients, à la fois personnels et culturels. S'érigeant contre les formulations qui ont comparé la psychologie des profondeurs au rituel religieux, au discours philosophique et au renouveau de la socialisation, l'auteur met l'accent sur une prise en compte de la beauté qui fait de la psychothérapie également un art. Dans le travail psychothérapeutique, l'attitude esthétique confronte l'analyste et le patient au problème du goût, influe sur la forme et le cadre de l'analyse et peut conférer une dimension de grâce à la façon dont l'analyste renvoie en miroir au patient ses combats et ses efforts pour devenir un être humain au fonctionnement plus flexible. De même, le patient peut-il concéder la même grâce aux tentatives maladroites de l'analyste pour se rendre utile. L'auteur suggère que l'attitude esthétique constitue donc une aide à la résolution du transfert et du contre-transfert,,en route,vers la guérison psychologique. Am Beispiel der Schriften des jungianischen Analytikers Joseph Henderson über unbewußte kulturelle Haltungen, die Patienten wie Analytiker in die Behandlung einbringen, definiert der Autor die ästhetische Haltung als einen der elementaren Wege, auf dem instinktiv Zugang zur kulturellen Erfahrung gewonnen und vorangetrieben wird, so daß diese zum bewußten Bestandteil der Erfahrungswelt eines Individuums werden kann. Innerhalb der analytischen Behandlung erscheint die ästhetische Haltung als Teil dessen, was Jung die Transzendente Funktion nennt, um neue symbolische Möglichkeiten für das Wachstum des Bewußtseins entstehen zu lassen. Sie kann kreative Möglichkeiten für Neuadaptionen da schaffen, wo die Individuation in einem unbewußten Komplex steckengeblieben ist und dies sowohl auf personeller wie auch auf kultureller Ebene. Im Kontrast zu Ausführungen in denen Tiefenpsychologie mit religiösen Ritualen, philosophischen Diskursen und Erneuerung der Sozialisation verglichen wurde fokussiert sich der Autor auf die Betrachtungen der Schönheit, welche Psychotherapie zugleich zu einer Kunst werden lassen. In der psychotherapeutischen Arbeit konfrontiert die ästhetische Haltung den Analytiker wie den Patienten mit dem Problem des Geschmacks der beeinflußt, wie die Behandlung geformt und ,gerahmt' wird, und der eine Dimension der Anmut zum Spiegeln des Analytikers hinzufügt, dem Spiegeln des Ringens, welches die Anstrengungen des Patienten, ein glattes funktionierendes menschliches Wesen zu sein, begleitet. Der Patient kann lernen, die gleiche Anmut den tastenden Versuchen des Analytikers hilfreich zu sein, entgegen zu bringen. Der Autor unterstellt, daß die ästhetische Haltung eine Hilfe darstellen kann bei der Auflösung sowohl der Gegenübertragung als auch der Übertragung auf dem Weg zu seelischer Heilung. Attingendo agli scritti dell'analista junghiano Joseph Henderson sugli atteggiamenti inconsci nei confronti della cultura che pazienti e analisti possono portare in terapia, l'autore definisce l'atteggiamento estetico come uno dei modi basici con cui si accede istintivamente all'esperienza culturale così che questa possa diventare parte conscia dell'esperienza di un individuo del sé. Nella terapia analitica l'atteggiamento estetico. Emerge come parte di ciò che Jung chiamo funzione trascendente per creare nuove forme simboliche per lo sviluppo della consapevolezza. Può fornire opportunità creative per un nuovo adattamento quando l'individuazione è rimasta bloccata in complessi inconsci, sia personali che culturali. In contrasto con le affermazioni che hanno comparato la psicoterapia del profondo al rituale religioso, al discorso filosofico e al rinnovamento della socializzazione, l'autore si concentra sulla considerazione della bellezza che fa della psicoterapia anche un'arte. Nel lavoro psicoterapeutico, l'atteggiamento estetico mette a confronto sia l'analista che il paziente con il problema del gusto, influenza il modo in cui il trattamento prende forma e ,si struttura', e può aggiungere una dimensione di gentilezza al rispecchiamento dell'analista delle lotte che accompagnano lo sforzo del paziente di divenire un essere umano più morbido. Il paziente può imparare ad estendere la stessa gentilezza ai goffi tentativi dell'analista di essere di aiuto. L'autore pensa che nel percorso di guarigione l'atteggiamento estetico può quindi essere di aiuto alla risoluzione del transfert e del controtransfert. Estudiando los trabajos del analista Jungiano Joseph Henderson sobre las actitudes inconscientes hacia la cultura que pacientes y analistas aportan a la terapia, el autor define la actitud estética como una de las formas básicas en las cuales la experiencia cultural es instintivamente alcanzada y procesada para ser parte consciente de la experiencia individual del self. En el tratamiento analítico, la actitud estética surge como parte de lo que Jung llamó la función trascendente, ella crea nuevas posibilidades simbólicas para el desarrollo de la consciencia. Ella puede proporcionar oportunidades creativas para una nueva adaptación donde la individuación se ha detenido en complejos inconscientes, tanto personales como culturales. Contrastando con formulaciones que han comparado la psicoterapia profunda con el ritual religioso, el discurso filosófico, y la renovación de la socialización, el autor se enfoca en aquellas consideraciones sobre la belleza que hacen de la psicoterapia un arte. En el trabajo psicoterapéutico, la actitud estética confronta tanto al analista como al paciente con el problema del gusto, afecta en cómo el tratamiento es establece y se ,encuadra', pudiendo otorgar una dimensión de gracia al espejo del analista en las luchas que asisten al esfuerzo del paciente para convertirse en un ser humano más armónico. Al paciente aprender a ver esta misma gracia en los esfuerzos del analista por ser útil. El autor sugiere que la actitud estética es, por lo tanto, una ayuda en la resolución de la contratransferencia y de la transferencia en el camino de la cura psicológica. [source]