Comments on: Thoughts On Measurement http://internationalpsychoanalysis.net/2009/01/23/thoughts-on-measurement/ A psychoanalytic slant on the world...with support from the American Psychoanalytic Foundation Tue, 22 May 2012 22:02:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Joel Kanter http://internationalpsychoanalysis.net/2009/01/23/thoughts-on-measurement/comment-page-1/#comment-13184 Joel Kanter Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:48:00 +0000 http://internationalpsychoanalysis.net/?p=3620#comment-13184 Jane: Re your comment below, I always find such distinctions quite strange. Supportive psychodynamic psychotherapy---which, incidentally, psychoanalysis proper has largely neglected---hardly operates through "intellectual understanding". I think Fairbairn's 1958 paper on therapeutic action is quite relevant here. His argument is that change occurs when the analyst (or therapist) enters the closed internal object world of the patient. I've seen this happen in very brief non-interpretative treatments (and this can hardly be conceptualized as "intellectual understanding"). And I've seen other long-term analytic treatments where the analyst/therapist and patient keep replaying old "tapes". What is important here is the lived experience of the patient, not the treatment that was used. Joel Kanter Jane's comment: (I differentiate psychodynamic psychotherapy which does not necessarily use psychoanalytic technique and instead, in my mind, is based on an intellectual understanding. Psychoanalytic work on the other hand, involves an emotional connection that resembles and recreates earlier connections, with the aim of reworking them.) Jane: Re your comment below, I always find such distinctions quite strange. Supportive psychodynamic psychotherapy—which, incidentally, psychoanalysis proper has largely neglected—hardly operates through “intellectual understanding”.

I think Fairbairn’s 1958 paper on therapeutic action is quite relevant here. His argument is that change occurs when the analyst (or therapist) enters the closed internal object world of the patient. I’ve seen this happen in very brief non-interpretative treatments (and this can hardly be conceptualized as “intellectual understanding”). And I’ve seen other long-term analytic treatments where the analyst/therapist and patient keep replaying old “tapes”.

What is important here is the lived experience of the patient, not the treatment that was used.

Joel Kanter

Jane’s comment:
(I differentiate psychodynamic psychotherapy which does not necessarily use psychoanalytic technique and instead, in my mind, is based on an intellectual understanding. Psychoanalytic work on the other hand, involves an emotional connection that resembles and recreates earlier connections, with the aim of reworking them.)

]]> By: Jane S. Hall http://internationalpsychoanalysis.net/2009/01/23/thoughts-on-measurement/comment-page-1/#comment-13124 Jane S. Hall Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:22:00 +0000 http://internationalpsychoanalysis.net/?p=3620#comment-13124 Thanks Jane, for the interesting editorial! I agree with most of what you say. I do have one question, though: Why pass over in silence the fact that a candidate will most probably not be internalizing the deeper aspects of a psychoanalytic attitude (or its “ethos”) if he or she doesn’t have a personal analysis and conducts supervised cases at a frequency of at least 3 times a week? This is obviously a hot potato in today’s discussions, but why is it so seldom brought out in the open? Jurgen Reeder Thanks Jane, for the interesting editorial! I agree with most of what you say. I do have one question, though: Why pass over in silence the fact that a candidate will most probably not be internalizing the deeper aspects of a psychoanalytic attitude (or its “ethos”) if he or she doesn’t have a personal analysis and conducts supervised cases at a frequency of at least 3 times a week? This is obviously a hot potato in today’s discussions, but why is it so seldom brought out in the open?

Jurgen Reeder

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