Transference and countertransference: two concepts specific to psychoanalytic theory and practice.
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The development of the theory of transference and countertransference from Freud to post-Freudian authors is described. It is concluded that the concepts of transference and countertransference are pertinent only within a definite psychoanalytic setting. They cannot be applied in every therapeutic situation. (+info)
Objectivity in psychoanalytic assessment of couple relationships.
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BACKGROUND: Clinicians claim that partners in a couple can be understood to share a mode of relating, at an unconscious level. Assessment of this depends on inference from observable data. This study tests the viability and reliability of a modification of the Personal Relatedness Profile (PRP) for this purpose. AIMS: To test the interrater reliability and construct validity of a joint PRP score for couples. METHOD: Seven therapists independently rated couples' interactions using the 30-item PRP and segments of videotaped interviews with 19 couples. RESULTS: Interrater reliability was good and correlations between items clearly supported the underlying Kleinian bipolar model used (paranoid-schizoid/ depressive positions). CONCLUSIONS: Psychoanalytic couple psychotherapists agree in independent judgements of the nature of couple functioning, these judgements being based on envisaging couples in terms of an unconsciously shared state of mind. (+info)
DSM and the death of phenomenology in america: an example of unintended consequences.
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During the 19th century and early 20th century, American psychiatry shared many intellectual traditions and values with Great Britain and Europe. These include principles derived from the Enlightenment concerning the dignity of the individual and the value of careful observation. During the 20th century, however, American psychiatry began to diverge, initially due to a much stronger emphasis on psychoanalytic principles, particularly in comparison with Great Britain. By the 1960s and 1970s, studies such as the US-UK study and the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia demonstrated that the psychodynamic emphasis had gone too far, leading to diagnostic imprecision and inadequate evaluation of traditional evaluations of signs and symptoms of psychopathology. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition (DSM-III) was developed in this context, under the leadership of representatives from institutions that had retained the more traditional British-European approaches (eg, Washington University, Iowa). The goal of DSM-III was to create a comprehensive system for diagnosing and evaluating psychiatric patients that would be more reliable, more valid, and more consistent with international approaches. This goal was realized in many respects, but unfortunately it also had many unintended consequences. Although the original creators realized that DSM represented a "best effort" rather than a definitive "ground truth," DSM began to be given total authority in training programs and health care delivery systems. Since the publication of DSM-III in 1980, there has been a steady decline in the teaching of careful clinical evaluation that is targeted to the individual person's problems and social context and that is enriched by a good general knowledge of psychopathology. Students are taught to memorize DSM rather than to learn complexities from the great psychopathologists of the past. By 2005, the decline has become so severe that it could be referred to as "the death of phenomenology in the United States." (+info)
Framework for a new dialogue between psychoanalysis and neurosciences: is the combined neuro-psychoanalytic approach the missing link?
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Freud's legacy deriving from his work The project for a scientific psychology (1895) could give a new impetus to the dialogue between psychoanalysis and neurosciences. A rapproachment phase is warrented. Based on the work of psychoanalysts who are themselves neuroscientists (such as Mauro Mancia, Martha Koukkou and Harold Shevrin) or have a long term dialogue with neuroscientists (Arnold Modell), three points of epistemological congruence are described: 1. dualism is no longer a satisfactory solution 2. cautions for the centrality of interpretation (hermeneutics) 3. the self-criticism of neuroscientists. (+info)
Tantalus, restraint theory, and the low-sacrifice diet: the art of reverse abstraction: 10th International Congress on Obesity; September 4, 2006; Sydney,Australia - Symposium: obesity management: adding art to the science, invited presentation.
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This paper argues that clinicians face the unique artistic challenge of taking concrete pieces of data - scientific findings - and abstracting them into effective therapeutic interventions. Moreover, this abstraction has to be modified for different personality types. The process of therapeutic change and how it can be impeded by the traditional medical model are briefly explored. The doctor-patient dyadic treatment relationship, while appropriate and necessary for many medical interventions, can disavow the source of change when it comes to lifestyle conditions such as obesity. Restraint theory and its origins in Greek mythology are briefly reviewed and integrated with Bowlby's attachment theory as precepts in developing a psychologically based dietary approach. By retaining in people's diets foods they have a deep emotional attachment to, the low-sacrifice diet attempts to encourage caloric restriction in a way that does not trigger rebound overeating. (+info)
Psychiatry and military conscription in Brazil: the search for opportunity and institutionalized therapy.
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A study demonstrating efficacy of a psychoanalytic psychotherapy for panic disorder: implications for psychoanalytic research, theory, and practice.
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