Description
Throughout Europe, Patrick Casement’s work on the interactional aspects of the therapeutic process is highly acclaimed. This volume features his earlier work, a best seller in Britain and already in 12 languages, as Part One. Completely new material that strengthens his view of therapy as a process of interactive communication comprises Part Two.
In this lucid treatise, everything in psychoanalytic theory and technique is up for questioning and careful testing in the clinical setting; every concept is explained and illustrated with clinical examples. Casement is unusually open about what really happens in the consulting room, including mistakes—his own as well as others’. The patient’s unconscious contribution to analytic work is fully illustrat ed. A result of this approach is that insight is arrived at with a rare freshness as theory is rediscovered in the consulting room.
Throughout, Casement develops familiar concepts and evolves a number that are new, such as internal supervision, a process in which the analyst/therapist explores the implications of various options during each session with the patient; trial identification with the patient, which encourages analysts and therapists to look at themselves as a patient might see them; and communication by impact, a graphic way of considering the various dimensions of projective identification. Other concepts include the dynamics of containment, the communication of hurt, the pain of contrast, and unconscious hope.
