Main description:

Psychoanalytic Method in Motion identifies and examines varied controversies about how psychoanalysts believe treatment should best be conducted. Irrespective of their particular school of thought, every analyst builds up a repertoire of his favored ways of working, which some analysts come to see as the most efficacious approach to treatment available. While such differences of opinion are unsettling, and may even threaten to tear the field asunder, this book sees these differences as benefitting psychoanalysis by improving the ways in which psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists practice.

In this book, Richard Tuch covers the waterfront by examining controversies that further the field by raising questions that help evolve the treatment, challenging every analyst to re-think what they are doing in the consulting room...and why. Some of the chief controversies explored include:

the enactment debate-unparalleled tool or regrettable error?

whether analysts can truly be "objective"-whatever that means

the advantages and disadvantages arising from the analyst's use of authority

the ways in which theory influences the analyst's search for data-blinding him to evidence he implicitly discards as irrelevant

whether any given treatment approach is more efficacious than others, as some analysts claim

the legitimacy of psychoanalysis itself-whether it can truly be considered scientific

whether certain methods of supervision are more effective than others

whether free association can be considered therapeutic in and of itself

the extent to which an analyst preferred clinical theory is a product of his personality

Drawing on ideas from a range of different analytic perspectives, this book is an essential and accessibly written guide to working towards best practice in the analytic setting. Psychoanalytic Method in Motion will appeal greatly to both students and practitioners of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Contents:

INTRODUCTION; Chapter 1 DARING TO LET GO: The Therapeutic Benefits of Free Association Chapter 2 THE ANALYST'S ACTIVITY AND HIS SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE Theory-Determined Salience and Selective Perception; Chapter 3 THE ANALYST'S WAY OF BEING: Method as a Function of Personality; Chapter 4 QUESTIONING THE ANAYST'S USE OF AUTHORITY For Better and For Worse TREATING CERTAIN SORTS OF PATIENTS Chapter 5 THINKING WITH, AND ABOUT, PATIENTS TOO SCARED TO THINK Can Non-Interpretive Maneuvers Stimulate Reflective Thought? Chapter 6 THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX: A Metacognitive Approach to the Treatment of Concrete Thinkers PSYCHOANALYTIC SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT Chapter 7 THE INTERPERSONALIST'S HANDLING OF ENACTMENTS The Effect of Comparative Theories on Technique Chapter 8 BEYOND EMPATHY A Wrinkle in Self Psychology Theory Chapter 9 LEARNING FROM MIDDLE SCHOOL THEORISTS: Technique from a Middle School Perspective PSYCHOANALYSIS IN THE 21ST Century Chapter 10 LEARNING HOW TO THINK LIKE AN ANALYST Teaching Technique to Psychotherapy Students Chapter 11 THE EFFECT OF STYLE ON THE QUALITY OF SUPERVISION Should the details of treatment be left to the treating clinician? Chapter 12 WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC ABOUT PSYCHOANALYSIS? Truth Comes in Many Colors