Joseph Schachter - Böcker

People's lives can be dramatically transformed by psychoanalysis. Yet the decision to undertake this enterprise can seem so formidable that many deny themselves an extraordinary experience. This book makes that decision - admittedly a complex one - better informed, clearer, and easier. It provides seven detailed case reports, easy to read and free of technical jargon, in which the patients' lives -in their own judgements - were transformed. This is not meant to imply that psychoanalysis always or even usually yields transformative results. These case studies are intriguing in their own right and help the reader think knowledgeably about psychoanalysis and assess its potential as a life-changing enterprise.

The theory of transference and the centrality of transference interpretation have been hallmarks of psychoanalysis since its inception. But the time has come to subject traditional theory and practice to careful, critical scrutiny in the light of contemporary science. So holds Joseph Schachter, whose Transference: Shibboleth or Albatross? undertakes this timely and thought-provoking task.After identifying the weaknesses and inconsistencies in Freud's original premises about transference, Schachter demonstrates how contemporary developmental research across a variety of domains effectively overturns any theory that posits a linear deterministic relationship between early childhood and adult psychic functioning, including the adult patient's treatment behavior toward the analyst. No less trenchantly, he shows how contemporary chaos theory complements developmental research by making the very endeavor of historical reconstruction - of backward prediction - suspect on logical grounds. Nor, Schacter continues, does the clinical evidence normally adduced in support of transference theory provide the firm bedrock of data that most analysts suppose to exist. What one finds, he holds, are endlessly reiterated claims of identifying determining historical antecedents sustained only by descriptions of current behaviors through a gloss of theory.Less a polemic than a call to order, Transference: Shibboleth or Albatross? is cogently argued and straightforwardly written. It is destined to be a thorn in the side of analysts who resist change and a spur to those who seek to bring analytic theory into closer alignment with contemporary science in the interest of improves treatment efficacy.

Recognition of the need for empirical research and interest in its findings are growing in psychoanalysis. Many psychoanalysts now acknowledge that research is imperative to try to deal with the factors propelling the diminution in status and prestige of the discipline, as well as the number of patients in intensive psychoanalytic treatment. In addition, there is increased pressure to expose and acquaint candidates with analytic research in the course of their education. From Psychoanalytic Narrative to Empirical Single Case Research revivifies the experimental potential of psychoanalysis by focusing a number of structured research methods on a single case study. Drs. Kächele, Schachter, and Thomä, in tandem with the Ulm Psychoanalytic Process Research Study Group, bring their formidable tools and knowledge to bear on Amalia X, a former patient of Dr. Thomä’s, whose case history is well-documented, preserved and available for formal empirical study. After providing an intensive review of the problematic aspects of clinical psychoanalytic research and an exegesis on the use of the case study itself, the specific case history of Amalia X, which dominates and centers the remainder of the book, is thoroughly examined. The following two chapters – utilizing clinical and linguistic models, respectively – deconstruct Amalia’s psychopathology along a variety of methodological axes in an effort not only to uncover the roots of her presenting symptoms, but also to reify and validate the strange bedfellows of psychoanalysis and empiricism in general. The book would be incomplete, however, without its final chapter, which provides suggestions and insights into the clinical applications and implications of their combined research.

Recognition of the need for empirical research and interest in its findings are growing in psychoanalysis. Many psychoanalysts now acknowledge that research is imperative to try to deal with the factors propelling the diminution in status and prestige of the discipline, as well as the number of patients in intensive psychoanalytic treatment. In addition, there is increased pressure to expose and acquaint candidates with analytic research in the course of their education. From Psychoanalytic Narrative to Empirical Single Case Research revivifies the experimental potential of psychoanalysis by focusing a number of structured research methods on a single case study. Drs. Kächele, Schachter, and Thomä, in tandem with the Ulm Psychoanalytic Process Research Study Group, bring their formidable tools and knowledge to bear on Amalia X, a former patient of Dr. Thomä’s, whose case history is well-documented, preserved and available for formal empirical study. After providing an intensive review of the problematic aspects of clinical psychoanalytic research and an exegesis on the use of the case study itself, the specific case history of Amalia X, which dominates and centers the remainder of the book, is thoroughly examined. The following two chapters – utilizing clinical and linguistic models, respectively – deconstruct Amalia’s psychopathology along a variety of methodological axes in an effort not only to uncover the roots of her presenting symptoms, but also to reify and validate the strange bedfellows of psychoanalysis and empiricism in general. The book would be incomplete, however, without its final chapter, which provides suggestions and insights into the clinical applications and implications of their combined research.