What Makes Therapy PSA?

Integrated Child & Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (ICAPP)
2020-21, 1st Block — Mondays, 6:30-7:45pm
Kelly Lippman, LMHC

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October 12, 2020 — Transference and countertransference

[25 pages]

The unconscious story that transference tells

Sandler describes the concepts of transference and countertransference and how a simple gesture is used to uncover meaning between the therapist and patient. McLaughlin’s clinical example, pulled from a longer article about enactments, shows how he came to recognize a patient’s unconscious communication within the transference dynamic. Instead of seeing this as an example of a ‘difficult patient,’ McLaughlin listens to his own unconscious and then uses that to hear his patient more clearly and speak with her in a way she can better hear.

(Just read pages 601-610 in the McLaughlin reading.)

Sandler, J. (1976). Countertransference and Role-Responsiveness. IRP, 3:43-47.

McLaughlin, J.T. (1991). Clinical and Theoretical Aspects of Enactment. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 39:595-614.