Description:

Invited Address Session 7 Part 1 from the Evolution of Psychotherapy 1995 – Recent Developments in the Technique of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Featuring Otto Kernberg, MD, with discussant Thomas Szasz, MD.
Moderated by Ellyn Bader, PhD.

The major emphasis in contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy is on the early and consistent interpretation of the transference. A growing attention to countertransference analysis, to the risk of “indoctrinating” patients, to character analysis, to the analysis of unconscious meanings in the “here and now” also are dominant trends. Significant controversies continue regarding the importance of the “real” relationship, the therapeutic versus the resistant aspects of regression, the role of empathy, and the relation of historical to narrative truth. A growing interest in short dynamic psychotherapy has sharpened the focus on the indications and contraindications for supportive in contrast to exploratory or expressive modalities of treatment.

Educational Objectives:

1. To provide up-to-date information regarding the essential aspects of contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
2. To describe both convergent and divergent trends throughout various psychoanalytic schools that influence psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
3. To describe an overview of present trends regarding indications, limitations and contraindications for shortterm and long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

*Sessions may be edited for content and to preserve confidentiality*