Books in the The Library of Object Relations series

In this landmark book, David Scharff and Jill Savege Scharff, both psychoanalysts, develop a way of thinking about and working with the couple as a small group of two, held together as a tightly knit system by a commitment that is powerfully reinforced by the bond of mutual sexual pleasure.

How We Became Human: A Challenge to Psychoanalysis tackles the question of what distinguishes human beings from other animals. By interweaving psychoanalysis, biology, physics, anthropology, and philosophy, Julio Moreno advances a novel thesis: human beings are faulty animals in their understanding of the world around them. From this perspective, Moreno seeks to reformulate many of the classic psychoanalytic, psychological, and anthropological postulates on childhood, links, and psychic change.

During the course of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with couples, the practicing clinician is commonly faced with problems and issues that at times can seem nearly insoluble. In Object Relations and Relationality in Couple Therapy: Exploring the Middle Ground, James L. Poulton, PhD, surveys those problems and offers practical suggestions for their resolution. Through the use of extensive clinical material from couple cases, each chapter presents a specific issue, reviews the theoretical background that is essential for understanding it, and offers detailed illustrations of effective clinical interventions.The issues addressed by this book include the following: vthe influence of intergenerational trauma on the coupleΓÇÖs functioning; vdynamics of violence and sacrifice within the couple; vthe narcissistic couple and disillusionment with the therapeutic process; vintensification of emotional stress that results when both partners share unconscious anxieties; vappropriate and inappropriate uses of the therapistΓÇÖs self-disclosure; vintegration of cultural issues in couple therapy; vnegotiating individual and shared transferences in couple therapy;vthe place of truth and certainty in the coupleΓÇÖs capacity to heal.Object Relations and Relationality in Couple Therapy: Exploring the Middle Ground draws upon leading-edge innovations in both theory and technique to offer creative solutions to the common dilemmas in couple therapy. In current discussions of psychoanalytic treatment, two distinct but interrelated theoretical approaches predominate: object relations and relational theory. This book emphasizes the continuities and commonalities between these two approaches, particularly in their application to the treatment of couples, and argues that modern relational theories can be read as clinically useful elaborations of similar intuitions that have already been developing in the object relations oeuvre. The chapters in this book illustrate that there is a firm middle ground in which ideas and techniques from both theories can be integrated into a consistent therapeutic approach that provides a broad foundation for conceptualizing couple interactions and for designing interventions that facilitate the coupleΓÇÖs growth.

This is the most thorough, revealing, and illuminating account of the inner workings of psychoanalytic institutions that has ever been written. It comprises ground-breaking, in depth, recent political histories of the four leading psychoanalytic institutes in the United StatesΓÇöNew York, Boston, Chicago, and Los AngelesΓÇöbased on the author''s extensive field work. Kirsner also provides dramatic insights into what psychoanalysts and their institutions have contributed to what has gone wrong with psychoanalysis. The result is a fascinating series of portraits of these institutesΓÇötheir organizations, their cultures, their ways of mediating conflict, and how they have survived. In addition to archival research, the book is built on scores of interviews with prominent psychoanalysts who were often protagonists in the stories of their institutes. Many themes emerge in Kirsner''s gripping yet scholarly accounts. Most importantly, he demonstrates that issues surrounding the right to train are central to psychoanalytic disputes. Unfree Associations examines the problems of psychoanalysis, a humanistic discipline that has been touted as a science on the model of the natural sciences but has been organized institutionally as a religion. Interest in this book should not be confined to psychoanalysts. It is a rich set of case studies in the vicissitudes of group relations, with the ironic twist that the members of these organizations profess to have special insight into human nature and how people get along with one another.

The enthusiasm among American clinicians for object relations theory has led to a host of problems related to the need to master a different terminology.

Offers an indepth and thoughtful exploration of the relevance of psychoanalysis to family therapy.

A relational model orients us to the important relationship between an individual and the ingroup. An optimal balance between autonomy and attachment is crucial in early life and when the individual is forming relationships with large groups. In development, extremes indicate pathology. Prejudice is an outcome of an extreme attachment to the large group, called an overidentification. This can be a compensation for developmental difficulties, or shaped by environmental threats. Together, psychoanalysis and social psychology enhance our understanding about prejudice.

Rising above the polemics surrounding sexual and physical abuse, David and Jill Savege Scharff bring a relational perspective to the integration of psychoanalytic and trauma theories in order to understand the effects of overwhelming physical and psychological trauma, including sexual abuse, injury, and birth defect. The Scharffs draw from their object relations therapy with individuals, families, and couples recovering from trauma and abundance of relevant clinical examples described in their characteristically personal and vivid style.

This is the second edition of a comprehensive manual that has become a classic in the field. In clear, readable prose it describes object relations theory and its use in psychotherapy.

Provides a practical yet sophisticated guide to the management of love and hate as they are experienced by both patient and therapist.

Dr. David Scharff explores the role of sexuality in human relationships by combining his extensive experience in individual, marital, family, and sex therapy with theoretical contributions from object relations theory and child development.

Presence and the Present: Relationship and Time in Contemporary Psychodynamic Therapy offers an applied perspective on psychodynamic psychotherapy relevant to contemporary practice. Emphasizing the therapeutic relationship and the dimension of time, it grounds the discussion in clinical application. Including more than fifty vignettes and four detailed case presentations, the author deconstructs successful interchanges as well as errors. The book also includes extended exploration of clinical issues such as trauma, shame, and bodily experiences of self.

Presents reviews of psychoanalytic theories and research. This title contributes to the study of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy.

Covering object relations, the author addresses the psychological processes of projective and introjective identification and countertransference. He brings fresh insight to the neglected concept of introjective identification and a new understanding of the therapeutic action of projective and introjective identification.

By drawing upon object relations concepts, the couples therapist is able to work with both the intrapsychic makeup of the partners and their ways of relating as a couple.

Object Relations Brief Therapy combines practical techniques with the depth of object relations theory, the wisdom of previous brief therapy writers, and, most notably, an emphasis on the unique therapeutic relationship. This new paperback edition includes a preface reviewing more recent developments in the area of brief therapy.

Object relations theory has caused a fundamental reorientation of psychodynamic thought. This work acclimates readers to the language and culture of this therapeutic perspective.

Offers a framework for living with the complexity of the therapeutic endeavor without falling prey to the practitioner's two great occupational hazards - grandiosity and despair.

Distill's the authors many years of research, clinical experience, and extensive theoretical knowledge of analytic group psychotherapy. This work presents their Gottingen model of group.