Commentary: Further Thoughts About Assimilative Integration

Abstract

The models for assimilative integration presented in this issue are considered. It is concluded that some grounding theories may be too structured, or one's interpretation of them too rigid, stifling psychotherapeutic flexibility and creativity by excluding potentially useful interventions. Alternatively, models may be too unstructured, or one's interpretation of them too loose, leading to treatment forms lacking specificity, direction, and coherence. As noted originally by Messer, assimilative integration operates most beneficially when practitioners address the limitations of their therapeutic models, or tap their models' progressive implications in ways that respect the fundamentals of their shared clinical theories. Practiced in this balanced way, assimilative integration can offer a useful, flexible way of navigating a creative yet disciplined psychotherapeutic course between unbridled technical eclecticism and technical and theoretical rigidity. The author also examines and extends some of the integrative ideas put forth in this issue, from a “two-person” or “intersubjective” perspective based on a “relational” psychodynamic treatment model.