Object Relations Individual Therapy

Emphasizing the transformational possibilities that grow out of their relational model of therapy, David E. and Jill Savege Scharff invite us into the territory of interactive journeys with individual patients. A contemporary classic.

Offers an indepth and thoughtful exploration of the relevance of psychoanalysis to family therapy.

Object relations theory has caused a fundamental reorientation of psychodynamic thought. In Object Relations Theory and Practice, Dr. David E. Scharff acclimates readers to the language and culture of this therapeutic perspective and provides carefully selected excerpts from seminal theorists as well as explanations of their thinking and clinical experience. He offers readers an unparalleled resource for understanding object relations psychotherapy and theory and applying it to the practice of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. The book's sequence establishes the centrality of relationships in this theory: the internalization of experience with parents, splitting, projective identification, the role of the relationship between mother and young child in development, and transference and countertransference in the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. This book will introduce students to the basics, to the widening scope of object relations theory, and to its application to psychoanalysis and individual, group, and family psychotherapy.

The two psychotherapists (both psychiatry, Georgetown U.) expand and update their initial explanation of the British object relations theory to clarify some of the arguments and incorporate developments in the theory and its practice over the past decade. It is a theory of the human personality developed from stying the therapist-patient relationship as it reflects the mother-infant dyad. No date is noted for the first edition. Annotation : 2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Rising above the polemics surrounding sexual and physical abuse, David and Jill Savege Scharff bring a relational perspective to the integration of psychoanalytic and trauma theories in order to understand the effects of overwhelming physical and psychological trauma, including sexual abuse, injury, and birth defect. The Scharffs draw from their object relations therapy with individuals, families, and couples recovering from trauma and abundance of relevant clinical examples described in their characteristically personal and vivid style.

In this landmark book, David Scharff and Jill Savege Scharff, both psychoanalysts, develop a way of thinking about and working with the couple as a small group of two, held together as a tightly knit system by a commitment that is powerfully reinforced by the bond of mutual sexual pleasure.

In Psychoanalytic Object Relations Therapy, Althea Horner explores the clinical implications of developmental object relations theory. She considers the importance of finding the interpersonal metaphor embedded in the patient's material, the various kinds of interventions made by the therapist, and the multiple ways the patient uses the therapist, such as a selfobject, a container, and an object for identification. Eight case presentations demonstrate Horner's theoretical contributions.