Psychoanalytic Psychology

Beyond “ESTs”: Problematic assumptions in the pursuit of evidence-based practice.
There has been much confusion in the literature of psychotherapy between the broad concept of evidence-based practice and the narrower set of criteria that have been employed in designating certain treatments as “empirically validated” or “empirically supported.” In contrast to the appropriate concern with examining the evidence for the efficacy of various approaches to therapy and for the theoretical assumptions that underlie them, the “empirically supported treatments” movement has been characterized more by ideology and faulty assumptions than by good science. This paper examines in detail the scientific and logical limitations of the “EST” movement and aims to place the empirical investigation of theory and practice in psychotherapy on a sounder basis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
The dynamics of sexual fidelity: Personality style as a reproductive strategy.
As monogamy is a culturally prevalent ideal, patients often suffer shame and guilt to the extent that they fail to live up to that ideal though desiring to or to the extent they reject that ideal in favor of nonmonogamous arrangements. Recent research in social, personality, and evolutionary psychology can lead to a mode of thought that can be helpful in overcoming the cultural bias that only monogamy is adaptive and that nonmonogamous practices are most likely maladaptive and pathological. Monogamous and nonmonogamous orientations may be better predicted by personality variables than by gender and both orientations may function as adaptations for reproductive advantage, despite the costs. The implications of these ideas for clinical practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
A three-person perspective on transference.
Different approaches to psychoanalysis may be classed according to the number of persons that they assume to be necessary in order to adequately describe mental life. One-person approaches assume the basic autonomy of the individual to act as a subject in her world, while 2-person approaches assume the irreducibility of object and subject, their essential complementarity and their mutual affirmation as subjects. Three-person approaches, on which the present article focuses, argue that the subject can fully develop only by creating enough space for herself among other persons who compete for subject positions. Such space is created in relation to (at least) 2 other subjects, hence the system of 3 persons. In the 3-person perspective, the position of the subject is defined as First, and the Second is defined by the one with whom the subject identifies and in whom she mirrors herself through cycles of projection and introjection. The position of the Third involves the personification of the cultural matrix and, especially, the way language informs our ability to relate to each other. This is best represented in the universal system of personal pronouns: the subject takes the position of the 1st person (I), the Second takes the position of the 2nd person (You), and the Third is posited as the 3rd person (she or he and it). In psychoanalytic therapy, the patient takes the position of the Subject, the First. Transference is construed as the superposition of both the 2nd and the 3rd persons upon the figure of the analyst, a mental process that (re)creates the necessary conditions for the development of subjecthood. As a result, in the discourse of transference, the position of the analyst keeps fluctuating between the 2nd and 3rd positions: When one takes place on the actual level, the other acts in the background, and vice versa. The therapeutic consequences of this view are discussed; for example, transference love is construed as a process in which the 2nd person struggles to dominate the positioning of the analyst. Other transferential configurations are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Supervising student-therapists: Suggestions for the transfer of long-term psychotherapy patients.
This article reviews patient and student-therapist variables thought to confound the transfer or forced termination phase of long-term psychotherapy conducted in training settings. Previous literature has demonstrated that not adequately attending to this critical juncture in treatment often results in the failure or disruption of therapy. Particular emphasis is placed upon examining the effects of countertransferance phenomena resulting from the student-therapist's necessary affective investment in the patient, and how these reactions may undermine the transfer process and the course of psychotherapy. The authors offer suggestions for supervisors in assisting student-therapists to provide more effective treatment at the transfer juncture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Long-term influences of childhood history and educational level on authoritarianism.
This study on authoritarianism is based on a survey of 900 respondents recruited originally to investigate the long-term effects of wartime evacuation on children from the County of Kent in England during World War II (Rusby, 2005). Following the psychoanalytic premise of Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, and Sanford (1950) this sample was used to test whether this childhood experience of apparent rejection by parents might be associated with scores on the F-scale and its nine subscales measured 50 years later. Variables related to home upbringing and the life course were included in the univariate and structural modeling analyses. The main effect of evacuation found was an inverse relationship with authoritarianism for males with the number of billets occupied. Females who had experienced a strict home upbringing had significantly higher scores on certain subscales. The analyses found a highly significant inverse relationship between the F-scale mean, and all nine subscales, with level of education. This contribution of the subsyndromes to authoritarianism was confirmed by factor analysis. The implications of the results for the psychoanalytic premise of authoritarianism are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
The return of the noble repressed: A Freudian reinterpretation of Freud's Moses story.
Beginning with Freud's observation of the apparent advance in intellectuality embodied by Judaism and then following Freud's writings about the return of the repressed in history, this article extrapolates that the God of monotheism arose as a projection of the superego. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Life and death drive in transplantation medicine: Clinical observations and consequences for psychotherapy.
Usually, an organ transplant leads to a clear improvement of the physical as well as the mental quality of life. But sometimes, in spite of medical success, patients turn away from the treatment and give up the self-care that is essential for survival (e.g., by not taking their medication regularly or not taking it at all). This article looks at this lack of self-care in the context of self-destructive tendencies, as well as in the context of a conflict between life and death drive, as Freud has described. Infantile as well as present frustrations may contribute to the patient's libidinous withdrawal or disobjectalization. At the end of the article, the relevance of an early detection of this withdrawal is emphasized, and the possibilities and limitations of psychoanalytical interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Comment on interview with Dr. Peter Fonagy.
One of the fine things about the psychoanalytic community is that we have forums for discussing ideas. Accordingly, I want to add a couple of different reactions to Dr. Fonagy’s interview with Elliot Jurist. In the interview, Dr. Fonagy raises the ultimate question of what is psychoanalytic when he offers a couple of throw-away lines suggesting that emphasis upon the unconscious is old-fashioned and discardable. Nonetheless, it seems to me that more can be said about a number of Dr. Fonagy’s points in this interview. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Phenomenology is not metaphysics: Reply to Philip Ringstrom.
The author refutes Ringstrom’s characterizations of his view of trauma, showing that they misrepresent phenomenological claims as if they were metaphysical ones. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Review of Psychoanalysis at the margins.
Reviews the book, Psychoanalysis at the margins by Paul E. Stepansky (see record 2009-22624-000). For more than two decades, there have been conferences and publications about psychoanalysis’ being in a crisis. None of these calls has led to a radical reorganization or reorientation of psychoanalysis. The result has been that psychoanalysis has become marginal: if in the 1960s a large percentage of professorships in psychiatry were held by psychoanalysts, now there are practically none. There are hardly any graduate programs in clinical psychology that are psychoanalytically oriented, and there are very few professorships in psychology that are in the hands of psychoanalysts. And while there are still many psychoanalytic institutes that succeed in attracting candidates, there are almost no patients left that come for classical psychoanalysis. Stepansky’s book is a major achievement and should be read by anybody concerned with the future of psychoanalysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Review of Dialogues on difference: Studies of diversity in the therapeutic relationship.
Reviews the book, Studies of diversity in the therapeutic relationship by J. Christopher Muran (see record 2006-11731-000). This book has taken the opportunity to begin with dialogue among clinicians with different theoretical perspectives on issues of diversity, including psychoanalytic, cognitive– behavioral, and humanistic viewpoints. In introducing the book, Muran sets the stage for the dialogues with an open discussion of his own culturally diverse background. He also describes the diversity characterizing his professional training in cognitive– behavioral psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, which in part contributed to his recognition of a need for this dialogue across perspectives. The book is divided into eight dialogues consisting of one psychoanalytically oriented writer or set of writers, followed by comments on this essay by two theorists from different and overlapping theoretical points of view. The final component of each dialogue consists of the author’s reply to the comments. The dialogues address eight separate topics including race, social privilege and multiple identities, homosexuality, intersection of race and gender in psychotherapy with African American men, identity in psychotherapy with Latino clients, role of stereotypes in psychotherapy with Asian Americans, Middle Eastern identity and psychotherapy, and communication and metacommunication in psychotherapy. One of the intriguing features of this book is that the dialogue is in written form, giving the reader the advantage of reading it several times to better engage with each author’s point of view. Because the format resembles that of an oral presentation of a single paper followed by discussions of the paper, I found myself wanting to ask questions of each of the authors. Several of the authors appear to have been enriched through this dialogue,because the very nature of this exchange parallels the concept of mutual influence that lies at the heart of relational psychoanalysis. The quality of dialogue across the different sections of this book is rich and complex and highlights the critical need for ongoing dialogue on cultural difference and similarity in the discipline of psychology, not to mention our broader society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

Psychoanalytic Psychology - Vol 27, Iss 3