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Book Details
Abstract
The psychoanalytic theory base for therapeutic practice is highly developed but the literature is thin when it comes to identifying practitioners' implicit knowledge base and developing more expert skills. This clear and vividly written book addresses the needs of practitioners moving beyond beginner level to more skilled and attuned practice.
The psychoanalytic theory base for therapeutic practice is highly developed but the literature is thin when it comes to identifying practitioners' implicit knowledge base and developing more expert skills. This clear and vividly written book addresses the needs of practitioners moving beyond beginner level to more skilled and attuned practice.
Laurence Spurling is Senior Lecturer in Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College, UK, with overall responsibility for the counselling and psychotherapy programmes at Birkbeck. He is also a consultant adult psychotherapist and works in private practice as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. He is the author / editor of six previous books, including An Introduction to Psychodynamic Counselling, now in its second edition.
This fascinating window into everyday analytic work makes compelling reading for practitioners in their various roles: as assessors, therapists, supervisors - and patients. Destined to be essential reading for all self-scrutinising psychoanalytic and counselling training programmes.' - Prof Jeremey Holmes MD FRCPsych, University of Exeter, UK
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover | Cover | ||
| CONTENTS | vii | ||
| List of Tables and Figures | x | ||
| Acknowledgements | xi | ||
| Introduction | 1 | ||
| What this book is about | 1 | ||
| Who is this book for? | 7 | ||
| How this book is organized | 7 | ||
| A note on confidentiality | 9 | ||
| A note on terminology | 10 | ||
| PART I: Obstacles to Development | 11 | ||
| 1 The Developing Practitioner | 13 | ||
| From pervasive to acute anxiety | 13 | ||
| Neither beginner nor experienced | 16 | ||
| Learning to negotiate the logics of different practices | 17 | ||
| 2 What Gets Missed Out in Analytic Accounts | 20 | ||
| Description of the psychoanalytic method | 20 | ||
| An example of analytic practice: Two sessions with “Doug” | 21 | ||
| What picture of analytic work is conveyed in this account? | 24 | ||
| Where is theory in this account? | 27 | ||
| The place of insight and the role of supportive techniques | 29 | ||
| Different versions of psychoanalytic practice | 30 | ||
| 3 The Babelization of Psychoanalytic Language | 34 | ||
| Psychoanalysis since Freud | 34 | ||
| Undisciplined pluralism | 36 | ||
| A comparative instrument | 39 | ||
| The range of contemporary practice | 41 | ||
| A framework for thinking about practice | 50 | ||
| 4 Why Theory Does Not Inform Practice | 53 | ||
| The gap between practice and theory | 53 | ||
| Adopting the “splitting and projection” model | 56 | ||
| Drawing on theory to solve a particular clinical puzzle | 61 | ||
| A map of implicit theory | 63 | ||
| Closing the gap between practice and theory | 68 | ||
| Working models | 69 | ||
| Practical and theoretical reasoning | 72 | ||
| Changing how we think about psychoanalytic work | 73 | ||
| PART II: Psychoanalytic Practice as a Form of Craft | 75 | ||
| 5 The Craft Metaphor | 77 | ||
| Adopting the craft metaphor | 77 | ||
| The craft metaphor offers a different perspective | 85 | ||
| 6 Analytic “Rules” and Craft Practice | 87 | ||
| Evenly suspended attention | 87 | ||
| The “rules” of neutrality and abstinence | 94 | ||
| The idealization of not-knowing | 97 | ||
| 7 Countertransference and Containment Revisited | 99 | ||
| Countertransference | 100 | ||
| Containment | 105 | ||
| PART III: Describing the Craft: Examples from Practice | 111 | ||
| 8 A Session from an Intensive Therapy | 113 | ||
| Account of a session | 114 | ||
| Looking back at this session in the light of subsequent sessions | 128 | ||
| 9 Two Sessions from a Brief Therapy (with a commentary by Dorota Jagielska-Hall) | 134 | ||
| Initial consultations | 137 | ||
| How the chapter was written | 138 | ||
| The management of therapeutic boundaries | 151 | ||
| The internal clinical template | 155 | ||
| What is good practice? | 156 | ||
| PART IV: Developing the Craft: Examples from Clinical Discussion, Supervision and Teaching | 159 | ||
| 10 Thinking About Interventions: An Example from a Clinical Discussion Group | 161 | ||
| Categories of interventions | 162 | ||
| An example from a clinical discussion group | 163 | ||
| Looking at one intervention | 164 | ||
| What happened next | 165 | ||
| Carolyn’s comments | 167 | ||
| Evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention | 167 | ||
| 11 How Working Models Inform Practice: An Example from a Supervision Group | 169 | ||
| Description of the session | 170 | ||
| The role of supervisor: Practical and theoretical reasoning | 177 | ||
| Working models of presenter and supervisor | 178 | ||
| 12 Developing One’s Own Way of Working: An Example from Teaching | 183 | ||
| Bola | 184 | ||
| Susan | 187 | ||
| Jan | 188 | ||
| Jane | 191 | ||
| Greta | 192 | ||
| Kiran | 194 | ||
| Concluding Remarks | 200 | ||
| Honouring our teachers while freeing ourselves from them | 200 | ||
| A practice-based view of practice | 201 | ||
| References | 205 | ||
| Index | 209 |