The Power of Countertransference: Innovations in Analytic Technique

213 Pages·2004·60.17 MB·English

by  Karen J. Maroda

The Power of
Countertransference
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The Power of
Countertransference
Innovations in
Analytic Technique
Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged
Karen J. Maroda
~
THE ANALYTIC PRESS
2004 Hillsdale, NJ london
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© 2004 by The Analytic Press, Inc., Publishers
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form: by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by The Analytic Press, Inc.
101 West Street, Hillsdale, NJ 07642
www.analyticpress.com
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Maroda, Karen J.
The power of countertransference : innovations in analytic
technique I Karen J. Maroda. - 2"d ed., rev. & enl.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88163-414-X (alk. Paper)
I. Countertransference (Psychology) 2. Psychoanalysis. I. Title
RC489.C68M37 2004
616.89' 17--dc21
2004046156
Library of Congress Control Number: 200410340 I
Printed in the United States of America
10987654
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Foreword-Lewis Aron IX
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Myth of Authority: On Building a Working
Relationship 6
Chapter 2 Motivations for Treatment: The Pursuit of
Transformation 33
Chapter 3 The Unfolding of the Transference and Counter
transference: The Drama Re-Enacted 66
Chapter 4 The "Real" Relationship Versus the Transference
and the Countertransference: The Impossible
Distinction 97
Chapter 5 Countertransference Techniques: Constructing the
Interpersonal Analysis 110
Chapter 6 Countertransference Issues at Termination 157
Conclusion 174
References 176
Arterword 181
Index 198
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To
EJH
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Acknowledgments
I have always believed that any significant accomplishment by any
individual was made possible by the avid support of one, or many, friends,
family members or colleagues. Unquestionably this book would not exist
without the contributions of the fine people I have worked with and loved
over the years. In addition to all of my patients I would like to thank
the following people.
Johanna Krout Tabin, PhD for her reading and critique of the first draft
of the manuscript, and for her continuing support and friendship. Her
keen eye helped maintain the focus of the book and her clinical expertise
served to let me know when points needed to be elucidated and when
clinical examples were needed. In addition to her professional skills, I
am grateful for the great care and time she took from a busy schedule
to help make this book all that it could be.
L. David Levi, MD, who for the past ten years has challenged and
debated my ideas with me, helping to forge the strong convictions I now
have. He continues to enrich my personal and professional life in a way
that few have.
Mary Alice Houghton, MD, for her careful reading and critique of the
first draft of the manuscript, and for her friendship and enthusiasm.
Also,John Gilligan, PhD, Michael Osborn, PhD, Gale Graubart-Roman,
MA, and my loving family for their support and encouragement.
Finally, I would like to thank Glenys Parry, PhD, the previous European
editor of the Wiley series in which this book appears, who discovered
me when I presented a paper on countertransference at an AP A
convention. She immediately suggested that I write this book and initiated
the steps leading to a contract. Without her there would be no book. So
I am deeply grateful for her faith in my talent and hope that this book
proves worthy of the confidence that she and all of the others mentioned
here have placed in me.
KJM
October 20, 1990
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Foreword
With the shift from a one-person to a two-person psychology that has defined the
relational turn in psychoanalysis has come a heightened attention to the personal
involvement of patient and analyst and to the affective link between them. Karen
Maroda has courageously called for emotional honesty and affective self-disclosure
in the analytic encounter. While Maroda's work is profoundly personal and
creative, more than that of other writers on psychotherapeutic methodology, she
also insists that theorists of psychoanalytic technique articulate the principles
that guide their clinical interventions so that these procedures can be taught and
studied systematically. In this, hcr first book, The Power of Countertransference
(1991) she began to outline her own systematization of psychoanalytic technique,
which was to be continued in numerous publications including her Seduction,
Surrender, and Transformation (1999, The Analytic Press). This book made an
immediate and important impact on the field of psychoanalytic technique and has
been sought out by students and practitioners because of its clarity and
persuasiveness. It is to the great credit of The Analytic Press that they have made
it available in this new edition of The Power of Countertransference.
What are the actual clinical implications of a relational approach for
psychoanalytic technique and practice? One of the unique features of relational
psychoanalysis is that it docs not prescribe any singular correct practice. Relational
theorists and practitioners suggest a range of clinical styles and forms of practice.
Maroda proposes an original and thoroughly interactive model of psychoanalytic
practice in which the patient learns through the medium of affective
communicatiion with the analyst. Maroda's writing is consistently passionate,
challenging, and provocative. Where psychoanalysis used to call for abstinence,
neutrality, and anonymity, Maroda pushes for emotional honesty and personal
availability.
While promoting radical mutuality and an interactive clinical methodology,
Maroda never avoids or neglects the role of power and authority within the analytic
dyad. She remains carefully attentive to the asymmetries of power and to the
need to develop psychoanalytic principles of technique that protect the integrity
of the analytic process. In this outstanding book, Maroda draws on her years of
renective clinical practice to articulate a systematic and highly disciplined clinical
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