Psychoanalytic Treatment: An Intersubjective Approach

An excellent book. Well written with complex ideas clearly expressed. For anyone interested in understand the intersubjective philosophy and approach to psychotherapy this book is a must.

Through some 15 years of collaborative work, Robert D. Stolorow, Bernard Brandchaft, and Gearge E. Atwood have developed the concept of an intersubjective field as the central explanatory construct guiding psychoanalytic theory, practice, and research. In this eminently practical book, the authors apply their intersubjective approach to a wide array of clinical issues that are critical to psychoanalytic therapy, including the analysis of transference, resistance, and psychic conflict, and the treatment of borderline and psychotic states. The intersubjectivity field created by the interplay between the subjective worlds of patient and therapist, or of child and caregiver, is the organizing theme of Psychoanalytic Treatment: An Intersubjective Approach. The concept of a system of differently organized, interactive subjective worlds is shown to be invalable in illuminating both the vicissitudes of psychoanalytic therapy and the process of human psychological development. The authors postulate that clinical phenomena cannot be understood psychoanalytically apart from the intersubjective contexts in which they arise and recede. Rich clinical illustrations amply bear out the authors' contention that an intersubjective perspective can significantly enlarge analysts' and therapists' capacity for sustained empathic inquiry and, in the same measure, enhance the scope and therapeutic effectiveness of psychoanalytic treatment. Psychoanalytic Treatment: An Intersubjective Approach will not only be of great theoretical interest to, but have crucial clinical consequences for, all students, trainees, and practioners in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. --- from book's dustjacket.