In clear, accessible language, Lee Grossman addresses the disjuncture between analytic literature and clinical work in an effort to render analytic theorizing more representative of clinical experience.
Pointing out the ways in which analytic literature can fail to capture the intensity of feeling and the stumbling, lurching, working in the dark that captures much of clinical engagement, Grossman shows how incomprehensibility is sometimes mistaken for wisdom. As an alternative, Grossman shows how attention to what he calls the syntax of thought can naturally define three different broad categories of life experience: the omnipotence of the neurotic, the wishful, short-sighted thinking of the perverse, and the concrete, disordered thinking of the psychotic. Using rich clinical material, interspersed with detailed exposition and artful satire, Grossman departs from conventional theoretical writing to provide new ways of conceptualising analytic therapy.
Addressing analytic therapy as an encounter between two people, both governed by forces about which they know very little, this book provides essential insights for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and other clinical practitioners both in training and in practice.
Author(s): Lee Grossman
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 191
City: London
Cover
Endorsement
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: What Is This, Who Am I, and Why Should You Care?
Note
References
Part I With Whom Do We Do What We Do?
Chapter 1 Neurosis as a Way of Thinking: The Syntax of Unconscious Oedipal Thought
Freud’s Usage
Neurotic Thought
A Clinical Sketch
Repression and Oedipal Thought
Non-Neurotic Psychic Organization
Summary and Concluding Remarks
Notes
References
Chapter 2 The Syntax of Oedipal Thought in the Case of Little Hans
The Syntax of Dream, Fantasy, and Fable
Causation and Egocentrism
Repression and Defense
Conscious Contradictory Ideas
The Syntax of the Compromise
Notes
References
Chapter 3 The Third Wish: Some Thoughts On Using Magic Against Magic
Note
References
Chapter 4 Perverse Syntax and the Perverse Attitude Toward Reality
The Role of the Superego
Clinical Considerations
Discussion
Note
References
Chapter 5 Reality Testing in Perverse Organization
Psychic Reality
Reality and Reality Testing
Reality and Perverse Defenses
Another Clinical Example
The Patient’s Reality and the Analyst’s Reality
Note
References
Chapter 6 The Object-Preserving Function of Sadomasochism
The Evolution of Freud’s Views On Sadomasochism
A Digression: The Instinct for Mastery
Aggression, Sadism, and Masochism
The Developmental Assumptions of the Present Chapter
Fort-Da Revisited
Aggression and Sadism: A Proposal
Sadomasochism and Reversibility: A Developmental Speculation
What Does This Distinction Look Like?
A Less Extreme Clinical Example
Sadomasochism and Perversion
Summary and Concluding Remarks
Notes
References
Chapter 7 Inventing Oneself: The Effort Toward Self-Cure in a Psychotic Woman
The First of Many Treatment Crises
Two Charged Memories
Discussion
The Effort to Invent Oneself
What Am I, Chopped Liver?
The Syntax of Psychotic Mentation
Note
References
Chapter 8 Neurotic, Perverse, and Psychotic Action
Neurotic Action
Perverse Action
Psychotic Action
Part II What Do We Do When We Do What We Do?
Chapter 9 The Syntax of the Presenting Complaint
The Nature of the Categories
Discussion
Notes
References
Chapter 10 An Observation On Naming and Language
Ben
Ellen
Note
References
Chapter 11 The Analyst’s Influence
Clinical Example
Interpretive Influence
Noninterpretive Influence
The Analyst’s Authority
Note
References
Chapter 12 What the Analyst Does Not Hear
Ms. F
Notes
References
Chapter 13 Analytic Technique: A Reconsideration of the Concept
The Functions of Technique: Rules, Principles, and Attitudes
Where Do Technical Principles Come From?
Clinical First Principles
The Function of Theoretical Schools
The Relation of Theory to Clinical Practice
What Is Gained and What Is Lost
Implications for Teaching
References
Part III Empathy and Countertransference
Chapter 14 Empathy and “Countertransference”
References
Chapter 15 The Person in the Analyst’s Chair
The Analyst as Catalyst: Context and Consequences of the Debate
The Analyst Acting: What Do We Mean By Technique?
The Analyst Being: Character and Technique
Countertransference: One Contemporary View
Concluding Remarks
Notes
References
Part IV Acting and Reflecting
Chapter 16 In and Out of the Frame: Moving Between Experience and Reflection
Notes
References
Chapter 17 Play in Analysis
Notes
References
Coda Writing About Analytic Writing
Chapter 18 Reading Ogden Reading Winnicott
Notes
References
Chapter 19 The Duration of Analysis: A Contribution to the Discussion
The Analysis
Discussion
Initial Phase: Resistance to the Awareness of the Transference
Middle Phase: Transference Neurosis
Termination Phase: Accepting Reality
Implications for Technique
Postscript
References
Chapter 20 A Desultory Excursion Into New Developments in Psychoanalysis
The Case of Frau Agnes
Discussion
Notes
References
The Last Word
Index
