Psychoanalytic Psychology

Personality-related responses to the psychoanalytic process: A systematic multicase study.
Seven analysands and their analysts were repeatedly interviewed at the beginning, during, and after the analysis about the analysands' problems and helpful and hindering factors in the analytic process. Using the analysands' initial descriptions of their problems, the authors categorized them as anaclitic or introjective according to Blatt's personality model. The hypothesis was that they would differ as to experiences of the analytic work. The introjective group expected improved emotional control and ability to regulate interpersonal distance in addition to better understanding the roots of their problems. The anaclitic group believed that the analyst's strength and empathy would help them handle their need for support and love. The introjective group saw their own problems as the main hindrance in analysis but also directed critique to the analyst as a person. Their analysts experienced that the analysands wanted to do the work by themselves and were difficult to engage in the analytic process. The analysands in the anaclitic group were more occupied by hindrances in the psychoanalytic frame and attitude. Their analysts, on the other hand, sometimes found the work difficult and frustrating. The authors underline the importance of being aware of personality differences in analysands' response to specific dimensions of the analytic process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The tragic-ironic self: A qualitative case study of suicide.
A qualitative case study is described of a man who died from suicide after incarceration, which is part of a larger multimethod family case study. Hermeneutical phenomenological analyses in this study were based on personal archival documents he collected during his incarceration and interpreted theoretically using Kohutian self psychology and McAdams' narrative theory of personality. Based on procedures from prior research, texts were coded for narrative themes of tragedy and irony, as well as expressions of selfobject needs (i.e., mirroring, idealization, twinship). Results depicted prominent themes of (a) tragedy, (b) irony, (c) twinship hunger, and (d) idealization/twinship avoidance. Exploratory analyses suggested some preliminary support for tragedy themes being associated with avoidance of idealization and twinship needs and irony themes being associated with hunger for mirroring and twinship. Implications are considered for psychoanalytic theory and future empirical research on both suicide and narrative selfhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Engendered self-states: Dissociated affect, social discourse, and the forfeiture of agency in battered women.
Inspired by work with a private client, I began a research project aimed at investigating the psychological development of victim self-states, not just as a product of interpersonal trauma but in the broader context of cultural demands for women to dissociate feelings that have been labeled antithetical to accepted gender norms for heterosexual behavior. As part of the Emotional Empowerment Project, I interviewed women who had been in long-term relationships characterized by verbal and emotional abuse as well as serious physical violence. Using a psychoanalytically oriented interview format, I collected more than 24 hours of narrative about the women's experiences. The analysis led me to hypothesize significant links among experiences of child abuse, the absence of gender-dystonic emotions along an aggressive continuum, masochistic self-states in adulthood, and the surrender of agency during intimate relationships. The work brings up important questions regarding the intersection of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and society, such as whether the integration of dissociated aggression would be facilitated by the incorporation of techniques aimed at raising consciousness around gender inequities, and whether it is incumbent on therapists treating battered women to confront more systematically their own participation in systems of oppression, as those attitudes insinuate themselves in the countertransference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Self-narratives and dysregulated affective states: The neuropsychological links between self-narratives, attachment, affect, and cognition.
Recent dovetailing developments in psychoanalysis and neuroscience are increasingly providing clinicians with the ability to understand emotional difficulties and therapeutic processes in new and integrated ways. In particular, one's level of affect regulation has emerged as an important aspect of emotional wellbeing (Fonagy, 2008; Jurist, 2008; Schore, 2009; Siegel, 2007; Tronick, 2007). Not surprisingly, the emphasis on regulating debilitating emotions has come from diverse clinical approaches, ranging from Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (Beck et al., 1990) to nonconscious affect regulation between analyst and patient (Schore & Schore, 2008; Stern et al., 1998). It is important, then, to further understand the somatic, emotional, and cognitive aspects of dysregulated states. Indeed, neuropsychological research in areas such as early development and attachment, affect and cognition, implicit memories, and intersubjectivity has opened new windows into some important parameters of dysregulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
New experiences and meanings: A model of change for psychoanalysis.
A model of the self is presented emphasizing the experiential self, along with self-with-other representations. This model focuses on primary consciousness in distinction from consciousness of the theory of the self, or the sensory–perceptual self in addition to verbal/conceptual processes. The experiential self is discussed in relation to contemporary neuroscience and nonlinear dynamic systems theory. Acknowledgment of the experiential self leads to implications for therapeutic action. Although psychoanalysis has focused on a change in the meanings of experience—especially unconscious meanings—as a route to change, many recent theorists have commented on new experiences themselves as leading to change. This idea is consistent with acknowledgment of the experiential self. To the extent the idea of an experiential self is endorsed, there are implications for interventions that can address it. These include attention to sensory processes, the body, visual images, language in the present, and mindfulness techniques in addition to nonverbal aspects of the relationship. Instead of simply relying on interpretation leading to insight, the model of change in psychoanalysis can now be said to be one of new experiences and new meanings of experiences. Such models of the self and change help to bridge the gap between psychoanalysis and “mainstream” psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Integrating the intrapsychic and the interpersonal in psychoanalysis: Laplanche's contribution.
Among the challenges facing 21st century psychoanalysis, the need to better integrate the intrapsychic and interpersonal perspectives and traditions is of considerable importance. The French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche's work is one example of a body of 20th century psychoanalytic theory that has untapped potential for meeting this challenges. Using a variety of examples, I attempt to illustrate this potential and describe some extensions of Laplanche's views that might broaden their utility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Review of Inside the session: What really happens in psychotherapy.
Reviews the book, Inside the Session: What Really Happens in Psychotherapy by Paul L. Wachtel (see record 2010-19900-000). Logically enough, the book is divided into three parts. Part 1, “Grounding Assumptions and Principles,” lays out the theory from which Wachtel works. Part 2, “The Sessions,” presents transcripts and commentary about three sessions, two with one patient. Part 3, “Reflections,” examines the sessions in retrospect, given the theoretical orientation. In total, the book delivers on its promise, as Wachtel provides a refreshingly honest (and commendable) appraisal of his work with the two clients so that we come to know what really happened in these sessions—to the degree to which this is epistemologically possible. When all is said and done, the cogency of the theory, its application with complete sessions, the honest commentary about the clinical work, and the clinical wisdom displayed render the theoretical frustrations to be inconsequential rain drops in what is otherwise a perfectly good day. Wachtel has done us all a great service by shedding light on our private enterprise—we all could do well to follow his example. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Review of Toward mutual recognition: Relational psychoanalysis and the Christian narrative.
Reviews the book, Toward Mutual Recognition: Relational Psychoanalysis and the Christian Narrative by Marie T. Hoffman (see record 2011-00208-000). Marie Hoffman has attempted a scholarly, important, and elegantly designed interdisciplinary study. This book wants to shake up our thinking about the origins of relational psychoanalysis. Its author, steeped in conservative and evangelical, though not fundamentalist, Christian theology, recasts the usual secular histories of contemporary psychoanalysis. These accounts tell the story of Freud’s wholesale rejection of religion as illusion, and seriously neglect, in Hoffman’s view, religious influences that have impelled contemporary psychoanalysis toward relationality. Her massive use of sources—in psychoanalysis, theology, philosophy, and intellectual history generally—testifies to her serious and impressive reading as well as to her integrative capacities. The reviewer's criticisms come only because this book engaged her so much. She believes that it begins an important conversation in contemporary psychoanalysis and that we will all be in Hoffman’s debt. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Review of Beyond the reach of ladders: My story as a therapist forging bonds with firefighters in the aftermath of 9/11.
Reviews the book, Beyond the Reach of Ladders: My Story as a Therapist Forging Bonds with Firefighters in the Aftermath of 9/11 by Elizabeth Goren (2011). Dr. Elizabeth Goren worked in a New York City Firehouse for over a year following the destruction of the World Trade Center in September 2001. Among the nearly 3,000 individuals who perished in the Twin Towers were 343 New York City Fire Fighters who entered the buildings to save them. Goren’s book, Beyond The Reach of Ladders is the story of the firemen with whom she worked both in the firehouse and for several years afterward in her therapy office. It is a layered chronicle of trauma and loss. It is also a book that vividly demonstrates the ways that psychoanalytic principles can be used to address the most extreme of human experiences in settings far from the analyst’s office. In sum, Goren is a remarkably generous writer. She represents the men she worked with in an utterly compelling way. In a style that is accessible and vivid, Dr. Goren demonstrates that psychoanalytic principles can be used to bring solace and meaning in the face of horror. She shows us how these principles can be adapted to settings far beyond the reach of the analyst’s chair. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Psychodynamic doctoral dissertations completed in 2010.
Presents a listing (alphabetical by college) of psychodynamic doctoral dissertations completed in 2010. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Psychoanalytic Psychology - Vol 29, Iss 1