Psychoanalysts In Session

Psychoanalysis is an intimate clinical experience and the concepts that it explores aim to grapple with the specific phenomena that unfold when a patient speaks and an analyst listens. This book aims to give concrete examples of how these concepts take shape when analysts work. The structure of the contributions presented in this book matches this concern; drawing on a fragment of an analysis, each contribution illustrates how a notion reveals unforeseen perspectives. The list of entries selected is diverse, with notions encountered in international studies since the Second World War prioritised. Certain classical concepts are nonetheless included when their significance has been shaped by the innovative rereading that contemporary authors have made of them. However, not all the entries in this glossary constitute concepts: some correspond to notions, others to intuitions, and even to recurrent situations with which the analyst is confronted. By grounding, in each entry, the theoretical reflection on a clinical case, the reader is lead towards the incessant to-and-fro process which governs the analyst’s reflections from clinical experience to theory. This book therefore constitutes an essential tool for psychologists, psychoanalysts and all professionals in the field of mental care.

Founded on the in-depth discussion of sixteen clinical cases of psychoanalysis, this book answers the question of what psychoanalysts do when they are practicing psychoanalysis. The authors have collaborated with over a thousand colleagues worldwide to collect a unique dataset of everyday clinical sessions, using a new workshop discussion method designed to reveal differences. Faced with diversity and wanting to surface and understand it, they had to evolve a new theoretical framework. This framework covers different approaches to the analytic situation (using the metaphors of cinema, dramatic monologue, theater, and immersive theater): different sources of data to infer unconscious content; differences in the troubles patients unconsciously experience and how to approach them; and differences in when, about what, and how a psychoanalyst should talk. Taking the form of eleven very practical questions for psychoanalysts to ask of each session they conduct, the framework helps experienced psychoanalysts and students alike determine their intention and independently assess their progress. A final chapter applies the new framework and practical questions to contemporary technical controversies with some surprising results.

This books offers guidelines to enhance the clinician's ability to conduct an effective first session. Armstrong identifies eight essential tasks of the first session, (including, for example, an atmosphere of safety, patient assessment, the contract, and transition), and demonstrates the steps he takes to accomplish them.

Drawing on deep reserves of experience and theoretical and research knowledge, Nancy McWilliams presents a fresh perspective on psychodynamic supervision in this highly instructive work. McWilliams examines the role of the supervisor in developing the therapist's clinical skills, giving support, helping to formulate and monitor treatment goals, and providing input on ethical dilemmas. Filled with candid clinical examples, the book addresses both individual and group supervision. Special attention is given to navigating personality dynamics, power imbalances, and various dimensions of diversity in the supervisory dyad. McWilliams guides mentors and mentees alike to optimize this unique relationship as a resource for lifelong professional learning and growth.

There are extraordinarily exciting periods in the history of science which bring new openings on the fringes of a particular field. We are in the midst of one of these periods: a large number of new discoveries regarding the functioning of the mind are published every day. These new findings in neuroscience are revealing unexpected aspects of neuroscience and pushing the entire field toward unexplored regions. Besides the advancement in the understanding of psychic processes, neuroscience offers psychoanalysts the opportunity to enhance the dialogue with psychiatrists, neurologists, and other scientists, expanding the theoretical model. It is clear that the relationship between psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and neuropsychoanalysis is controversial. So, the dialogue between neuroscience and clinical findings is essential. Building a bridge between neuropsychoanalysis and psychoanalysis through the clinical session is the main purpose of the book, which consists of two parts. The first part provides a theoretical view on dream, depression, addiction, panic and how to consider the study of a single case.

Hunter presents an analytic session she conducted with a borderline patient to 11 leading psychoanalysts for their comments, then continues on to delve into the individual histories of each of these clinicians, exploring the relationship between the clinical practice and theoretical foundations of p

Long-Term Psychoanalytic Supervision with Donald Meltzer is a detailed account of a particularly demanding analysis which Donald Meltzer closely supervised over twelve years. This will enable the reader to closely follow the internal life of a long-term, trying analysis. The reader can see how Meltzer’s thoughts had crucially guided the course of this analysis in many of its most challenging moments, often redirecting it. By watching things happening, the reader is enabled to get a deeper insight into Meltzer's highly complex, though outstanding thought. On many particularly important points, the author invited Meltzer to give his thoughts and interpretations in his own words as if he himself was the analyst. This provides the reader with a unique opportunity to ‘listen’ to Meltzer verbatim. Long-Term Psychoanalytic Supervision with Donald Meltzer demonstrates the often overwhelming yet fascinating complexities of mental life and will speak to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well as those interested in the philosophy of the mind.