Psychoanalytic Education at the Crossroads, Kernberg

In this book, Richard Tuch covers the waterfront by examining controversies that further the field by raising questions that help evolve the treatment, challenging every analyst to re-think what they are doing in the consulting room...and why. Some of the chief controversies explored include:

• the enactment debate--unparalleled tool or regrettable error?
• whether analysts can truly be "objective"--whatever that means
• the advantages and disadvantages arising from the analyst's use of authority
• the ways in which theory influences the analyst's search for data--blinding him to evidence he implicitly discards as irrelevant 　
• whether any given treatment approach is more efficacious than others, as some analysts claim
• the legitimacy of psychoanalysis itself--whether it can truly be considered scientific
• whether certain methods of supervision are more effective than others
• whether free association can be considered therapeutic in and of itself
• the extent to which an analyst preferred clinical theory is a product of his personality

Drawing on ideas from a range of different analytic perspectives, this book is an essential and accessibly written guide to working towards best practice in the analytic setting. Psychoanalytic Method in Motion will appeal greatly to both students and practitioners of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

The cases themselves include sexual abuse, a man whose father killed his mother, a change in sexual orientation, as well as those of depression, physical problems, and difficulties relating interpersonally, such as fear of rejection and rejecting help. Actual dialogues of sessions are featured, so that readers can see what takes place in psychoanalysis. The analysts here draw from theories of Sullivan, Fromm, Horney, and Fromm-Reichmann, Kohut, Winnicott, and more recently Levenson, Mitchell, Bromberg, Donnell Stern, and Aron, to name a few.

Most contemporary case reports come from short-term therapies and many rely on techniques of changing conscious cognitions and encouraging new behaviors. The treatments in this book, while often including such interventions, explore more in-depth processes that may be unconscious and related to transferential expectations from previous relationships, encouraging new experiences and not simply explanations.

Psychoanalytic Case Studies from an Interpersonal-Relational Perspective will be of great interest to interpersonal and relational psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists in clinical practice.

Brenman Pick is interested in the infantile antecedents of conflict in her patients, and the book demonstrates the attention needed to sense how these may be present in the patient's clinical material. This involves an ability to understand the complex and sophisticated unconscious phantasies that are alive in the patient's mind. She combines this with a creative clinical imagination that allows her to address these expertly in the here-and-now of the analytic encounter. A particular feature of this is the way Brenman Pick uses the analyst's countertransference to bring in ways in which the struggle over authenticity also extends to the analyst. The focus on authenticity runs through the book and brings an interesting and original perspective to the topics discussed, which include adolescence, sexual identity, stealing and its relationship to the acknowledgement of dependency, the experience of uncertainty, concern for the object, destructiveness, creativity and the striving towards integration.　

These contributions will prove invaluable to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and other mental health professionals interested in deepening their understanding of the complex relationships that can arise in the consulting room.

The manifold connotations of passion make it highly relevant to psychoanalysis, yet, so far, no book has explored the many facets of this pervasive theme. This book provides a comprehensive guide that will sensitize readers to the omnipresent importance of passionate emotion in the clinical setting, and throughout all areas and times of life. It bursts with thought-provoking ideas. Challenging cases are illuminated by penetrating reflections and novel applications and combinations of theoretical perspectives.

Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Passion explores the many ways in which very strong emotions - passions - can be understood and worked with in clinical contexts. The contributions cover such key topics as psychosis and violence, emotions in childhood, sexuality, secure and insecure attachments, the role of passion in seeking meaning, passion and transition space, and transference and countertransference.

This book will be of great help to all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists struggling to assist patients (and perhaps themselves) in locating their passions, channeling and expressing them in meaningful ways, and overcoming obstacles to their fulfillment.