The Primer Of Object Relations

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).

In the last two decades, object relations theory has crossed the Atlantic and taken America by storm. The enthusiasm among American clinicians for the British School, however, has led to a host of problems related to the need to master a new terminology. The difficulty in assimilating object relations theory is one more example of the aphorism that America and England are two countries separated by a common language. The Scharffs have taken a giant step forward in assisting American therapists in their efforts to master the language of object relations theory. With this primer they have anticipated the reader's questions at every turn and have answered them in remarkably clear and readable prose. Terms like projective identification, holding, containment, and self are freed from obscurity and made entirely understandable to even the novice clinician. The authors then apply these concepts to a variety of clinical settings. The Scharffs are equally at home when doing individual, family, marital, group, or sex therapy. It is difficult to imagine any other team of authors who could provide such a comprehensive survey of the broad applications of object relations theory. Students in all the mental health professions will find this slim volume to be an extraordinarily useful introduction to the field.

A handbook of this new development in psychoanalysis.

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

Object-Relations and Self-Psychology anchors developmental theory and associated treatment methods alongside the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to assist clinicians and students more familiar with this tool in translating these ideas into psychoanalytical ones.

Explains object relationships theory, describes the four stages of therapy, and discusses the personal side of psychotherapy

Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory provides a masterful overview of the central issue concerning psychoanalysts today: finding a way to deal in theoretical terms with the importance of the patient's relationships with other people. Just as disturbed and distorted relationships lie at the core of the patient's distress, so too does the relation between analyst and patient play a key role in the analytic process. All psychoanalytic theories recognize the clinical centrality of “object relations,” but much else about the concept is in dispute. In their ground-breaking exercise in comparative psychoanalysis, the authors offer a new way to understand the dramatic and confusing proliferation of approaches to object relations. The result is major clarification of the history of psychoanalysis and a reliable guide to the fundamental issues that unite and divide the field. Greenberg and Mitchell, both psychoanalysts in private practice in New York, locate much of the variation in the concept of object relations between two deeply divergent models of psychoanalysis: Freud's model, in which relations with others are determined by the individual's need to satisfy primary instinctual drives, and an alternative model, in which relationships are taken as primary. The authors then diagnose the history of disagreement about object relations as a product of competition between these disparate paradigms. Within this framework, Sullivan's interpersonal psychiatry and the British tradition of object relations theory, led by Klein, Fairbairn, Winnicott, and Guntrip, are shown to be united by their rejection of significant aspects of Freud's drive theory. In contrast, the American ego psychology of Hartmann, Jacobson, and Kernberg appears as an effort to enlarge the classical drive theory to accommodate information derived from the study of object relations. Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory offers a conceptual map of the most difficult terrain in psychoanalysis and a history of its most complex disputes. In exploring the counterpoint between different psychoanalytic schools and traditions, it provides a synthetic perspective that is a major contribution to the advance of psychoanalytic thought.

Aimed at beginning therapists and those new to object relations, this concise work introduces the reader to the practice of psychodynamic psychotherapy from an object relations (O-R) perspective in a dynamic and easy-to-follow way. One of the four main schools of psychodynamic psychotherapy, O-R is regarded as particularly challenging, both conceptually and practically. The book presents object relations in a clear and concise manner that makes it especially applicable for regular use in the clinical setting. Moreover, the author writes in a narrative style similar to actual psychotherapy supervision; dialogues between a therapist and a fictitious patient appear throughout the book to illustrate common clinical situations. Designed to complement actual training in psychotherapy, the book suggests ways in which the therapist can incorporate object relations tools with other forms of therapy, regardless of the clinical setting. Ideal for students, trainees, and clinicians in psychiatry, psychology, social work, family medicine, and psychiatric nursing, The Little Psychotherapy Book will prove invaluable for any reader seeking a helpful and succinct introduction to object relations in psychotherapy.