An occupied state of mind: Clinical transference and countertransference across the Israeli/Palestinian divide

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samah Jabr ◽  
Elizabeth Berger
2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Tubert-Oklander

Sándor Ferenczi did not work with groups, yet his thinking and practice can be conceived as a major influence on the origins and development of group analysis and as a seminal source of ideas for its further development today. In his approach to psychoanalysis, social facts have a bearing on psychological facts, and vice versa. This implies a constant interchange and mutual influence between individual and collective processes, inner and outer, psychological and social. This is one of the basic tenets of group analysis, which requires that social facts be given as much attention as the psychological. Ferenczi’s major contributions to the emergence of group analysis are his conceptual and technical revolutionary innovations, centred on the essential unity and mutual interchange between transference and countertransference. His emphasis on the fundamental importance of actual relations with other significant persons, such as the primary caregivers, the family, the analyst and society, and his description of the dynamic interplay of transference and countertransference anticipated the theoretical developments of group analysis. He introduced the holistic concept of the unity of transference and countertransference and of the family and the child. This implied an underlying but yet unformulated field theory, which is basic for group analysis. The essential unity and mutual interchange of ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ may be accounted for by Ferenczi’s concept of an originary undifferentiated state of mind, called ‘Thalassal’, from which all other mental states, experiences, perceptions and thoughts evolve, and which remains present but unseen, underlying the more differentiated states. This is the psychological basis for Foulkes’ conception of the matrix and Pichon-Rivière’s theory of the link (bond). Ferenczi’s memory was long repressed by the psychoanalytic world, but now that it has been recovered, his contributions may provide many of the missing pieces of group-analytic theory and practice and build the much-needed bridges between psychoanalysis and group analysis.


Author(s):  
Heather Churchill ◽  
Jeremy M. Ridenour

Abstract. Assessing change during long-term psychotherapy can be a challenging and uncertain task. Psychological assessments can be a valuable tool and can offer a perspective from outside the therapy dyad, independent of the powerful and distorting influences of transference and countertransference. Subtle structural changes that may not yet have manifested behaviorally can also be assessed. However, it can be difficult to find a balance between a rigorous, systematic approach to data, while also allowing for the richness of the patient’s internal world to emerge. In this article, the authors discuss a primarily qualitative approach to the data and demonstrate the ways in which this kind of approach can deepen the understanding of the more subtle or complex changes a particular patient is undergoing while in treatment, as well as provide more detail about the nature of an individual’s internal world. The authors also outline several developmental frameworks that focus on the ways a patient constructs their reality and can guide the interpretation of qualitative data. The authors then analyze testing data from a patient in long-term psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy in order to demonstrate an approach to data analysis and to show an example of how change can unfold over long-term treatments.


PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 50 (23) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Fass
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Sara Lynn Rependa ◽  
Robert T. Muller

This article discusses the case of a male vowed religious clergy, who was also in residential treatment for sexual misconduct and interpersonal difficulties. Importantly, this client also had a childhood history of sexual trauma. The case, difficult and complex in its own right, posed unique clinical challenges. The first author and therapist, a Catholic, feminist, woman often works with child trauma clients. Thus, the experiences of transference and countertransference were particularly important therapeutic considerations working with this client. Themes of power, sex, shame, guilt, and blame needed to be explored and processed in depth from the client’s and therapist’s perspectives both during session and supervision. Concurrent issues include personality disorders, physical disability, and psychosexual disorders. This client was referred by their religious institution and took part in a mandated fourteen to twenty-week residential programme. Therapeutic modalities include trauma-informed, attachment-oriented, and psychodynamic individual and grouporiented psychotherapy.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Hill ◽  
Sylvia Poss

The paper addresses the question of reparation in post-apartheid South Africa. The central hypothesis of the paper is that in South Africa current traumas or losses, such as the 2008 xenophobic attacks, may activate a ‘shared unconscious phantasy’ of irreparable damage inflicted by apartheid on the collective psyche of the South African nation which could block constructive engagement and healing. A brief couple therapy intervention by a white therapist with a black couple is used as a ‘microcosm’ to explore this question. The impact of an extreme current loss, when earlier losses have been sustained, is explored. Additionally, the impact of racial difference on the transference and countertransference between the therapist and the couple is explored to illustrate factors complicating the productive grieving and working through of the depressive position towards reparation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (8) ◽  
pp. 312-314

Surgical wound complications remain a major cause of morbidity; although usually not life threatening, they reduce the quality of life. They are also associated with excessive health care costs. Wound healing is affected by many factors – wound characteristics, infection, comorbidities and nutritional status of the patient. In addition, though, psychological stress and depression may decrease the inflammatory response required for bacterial clearance and so delay wound healing, as well. Although the patient´s state of mind can be influenced only to a certain extent, we should nevertheless stick to ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) guidelines and try to diminish fear and anxiety by providing enough information preoperatively, pay due attention to postoperative analgesia and seek to provide an agreeable environment.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document