Interpersonal School Research Articles

Das Zärtlichkeitsbedürfnis des Kindes. Anmerkungen zu seinem Stellenwert in Adlers Werk

The author discusses Adler's paper on the »need for affection« as an important step in the development of Adlerian theory. In some ways one could see it as a precursor of modern psychoanalysis, particularly the interpersonal school. In this paper, Adler widens the scope of instinct theory, ultimately undermining it. He understands the need for affection in an interpersonal way, as a forerunner of community feeling, and he discusses the effects of neglect or pampering in children´s upbringing.

When Interpretation Derails the Patient: The Negative Impact of Certain Misuses of the Concept of the Unconscious

Alternatives to classical psychoanalytic theory and technique have existed in the form of various "deviant" schools, all of which have found that contemporary conflict theory fails to achieve good results with the patients they treat. While the principles of interpersonal, self-psychological, intersubjective and relational schools are reasonably well known through the psychoanalytic literature, the opportunity to examine detailed analytic accounts by classical analysts has only recently become possible. The publication of full case reports has recently become a feature of the traditionally based psychoanalytic journals. This paper makes use of a recent volume of the Psychoanalytic Quarterly to examine the interpretations made during a lengthy analysis of a male patient struggling with his ambivalence about marrying his fiancée. The analyst repeatedly attributes his patient's reluctance to marry and negative feelings about his fiancée as determined by his unconscious conflation of his mother and his fiancée. The author attempts to demonstrate the derailment of the patient by these interpretations. They prevent him from solidifying his own judgment and, in so doing, prevent him from taking suitable action. An alternative approach to the material of the case is presented, including very different interpretations that would, in the author's opinion, liberate the patient rather than derail him from achieving his life goals.

Therapeutic Ambition, Uncertainty, and Psychotherapy with Heterosexually Married Gay Men: A Short Commentary

A Short Commentary on the article 'Staying Put in the Closet: Examining Clinical Practice and Countertransference Issues in Work with Gay Men Married to Straight Women' by Edward Alessi. The focus is upon countertransference issues, especially therapeutic ambition, in working clinically with heterosexually married gay men. The work of the interpersonal school is emphasized as providing a creative approach to therapeutic ambition with Otto Allen Will's concept of the governing principle of uncertainty.

The Dilemma of Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Toward a “Knowing” Post-Postmodernism

It is in the best interest of psychoanalysis that new schools of thought (earlier examples of which are the classical, Kleinian, and self psychological perspectives) evolve. Generating a new school of thought, however, is almost impossible in this postmodern era. The postmodern paradigm in psychoanalysis (intersubjectivity, dialectical constructivism, two-person psychology) does not strive to generate a "true" theory of mind that claims to fit reality, nor does it claim to be another school of thought. The creators of the classical, interpersonal, self psychological, ego psychological, Kleinian, Bionian, Fairbairnian, Winnicottian, and other schools cannot be postmodernists, for they all believed that their theories corresponded to reality and were therefore true. A shortage of analysts who "know the truth" today will make it extremely difficult for new schools of thought to arise in psychoanalysis, or for new and compelling theories and descriptions of the human psyche to be constructed. What is required is for pluralistic psychoanalytic institutions to empower analysts who are actively involved in the pursuit of new ideas and theories in psychoanalysis.

Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949): Hero, Ghost, and Muse

SUMMARY The author summarizes major contributions of Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949) that lie outside his well-known contributions to the interpersonal school of psychoanalysis. She describes him first as a tragic hero who tried to depathologize homosexuality in psychiatry and in Selective Service screening procedures–a role immortalized in John Fisher's 1996 play, Combat! She also interprets features of his “personality” in light of his “theorem of reciprocal emotion.” She then explores ways that he haunts the family psychology and therapy literature as a “ghost” who influenced Nathan Ackerman, Carl Whitaker, Don Bloch, Don Jackson, Robin Skynner, Salvador Minuchin, and R. D. Laing; and as a “buried ancestor” whose ideas pervade the family therapy literature. Finally, she summarizes his role as “muse” to pastoral theologians, emphasizing Sullivan's reciprocal influence on Anton T. Boisen in their explorations of the role of concealment and cosmic dramas in psychosis; his life-changing effect on O. H. Mowrer, who incorporated Sullivanian ideas into his integrity therapy; and the centrality of Sullivan for the dimension of the “we” in Paul E. Johnson's “dynamic interpersonalism.”

The changing place of the dream in psychoanalytic history, Part I: Freud, ego psychology, and the interpersonal school.

One of the major strands woven into the fabric of psychoanalysis was Freud’s use of the interpretation of dreams for his self-analysis. As a result of his own insights, he was destined to favor dreams and consider them the main avenue to the unconscious, placing them in an exceptional position. It seemed that in the beginnings of psychoanalysis, dream analysis and psychoanalysis were synonymous, and thus hard to differentiate from each other. However, no one today would claim that psychoanalysis and dream analysis are synonymous. As we look at the more than 100-year history of psychoanalysis, what stands out is how the place of the dream in psychoanalysis has mainly waned. The radical shift in how psychoanalysis is done raises questions about why this occurred. At least part of the answer can be found within the history of psychoanalysis itself. We can trace some of the change to shifts in Freud’s own thinking, which opened up new approaches to analysis such as ego psychology, and to the challenge posed by the interpersonal school to his understanding of dreams. If we look at ego psychology, one of the things that stands out is the repercussions for dream analysis when there was a shift from Freud’s emphasis on uncovering repressed infantile sexual wishes through free association to an emphasis on analysis of ego defenses (A. Freud, 1936) and an emphasis on strengthening

Die Interpersonelle Psychotherapie (IPT) in der Depressionsbehandlung: ein Überblick über den psychiatriegeschichtlichen Hintergrund und die psychotherapeutische Praxis der IPT

Among the forms of short-term psychotherapies for the treatment of depression, IPT (16 - 20 sessions) by Klerman u. Mitarb. is meanwhile one of the most well known and clinically practiced approaches. IPT has also been carefully controlled in a variety of studies proving efficacy. Interpersonal psychotherapy is based on the ideas of the interpersonal school of psychiatry. The hypothesis is that psychiatric illnesses and here depression develop in an interpersonal context. Life problems may contribute to onset and potentially chronicity of (current) depression and vice versa. By enhancing interpersonal functioning of the depressed patient IPT initiates the reduction of depressive symptomatology and helps solving of current life problems as dual goal of therapy.

Is the Unconscious Really all That Unconscious?

There is Little Question in the minds of every psychoanalytic practitioner that Freud's conception of the unconscious is the pivot around which psychoanalysis orbits, even if the particulars as to what the unconscious comprises have been debated by every psychoanalytic school that has followed in his wake. Yet despite the controversial nature of this concept, there is a pervasive agreement among analysts that whatever the unconscious is, it is certainly not a form of consciousness. That being said, this is precisely the dilemma that philosophers have found most troubling about the psychoanalytic conception of the unconscious and the reason why so many have questioned its efficacy. In a recent book, Grotstein (1999) addressed a fundamental and as yet unresolved difficulty in prevailing conceptions of the unconscious, which follows when we attempt to assign the very core of our being to a hypothesized unconscious agent that we can never know directly, and whose existence we must infer and, hence, believe to be so, as an article of faith. Grotstein concluded that we are still, after one hundred years of trying, unable to account for this persistent yet obstinate contradiction: that the unconscious knows all, but is “known” by no one. Like many, I have been haunted by this anomaly over the course of my analytic career. For the purposes of this essay, however, my concern is not a theoretical one, but one of approaching the problem phenomenologically, which is to say from the perspective of the psychoanalyst's lived experience—what has been depicted by the interpersonal school as an experience-near paradigm. Therefore, I do not intend to offer a new theory about the nature of the unconscious, but rather to explore

Recent Developments in the Technical Approaches of English-Language Psychoanalytic Schools

This paper summarizes developments in the major approaches to psychoanalytic technique derived from the ego psychology, Kleinian, British independent, self psychology, intersubjectivist, and interpersonal schools over the past fifty years. The author proposes that two major contemporary currents may be differentiated from each other, namely, the psychoanalytic “mainstream”—derived from contemporary Kleinian, contemporary Freudian, and British independent sources, and the “intersubjectivist-interpersonal-self psychology” current.In significant contrast to these two major currents within the English-language psychoanalytic approaches, the French psychoanalytic school has evolved a unique third approach to analytic technique. The author proposes that these three currents constitute the dominant trends regarding technique in contemporary psychoanalytic practice. The paper concludes with a brief outline of the characteristics of each of these technical approaches.

The interpersonal and Freudian traditions: convergences and divergences.

The traditional Freudian and interpersonal schools of psychoanalysis diverged during the psychoanalytic wars in New York in the 1940s. Each has developed from a different set of assumptions concerning the mind, especially the role of structure and the role of interaction. Recent developments in both schools in the last twenty years suggest a convergence and overlap in theory and technique. The relevant history of the divergence is examined and the work of three contemporary interpersonal writers explored in depth. That work is contrasted with contemporary developments in traditional Freudian psychoanalysis.

Freud and the interpersonal

Lothane, Z. Freud and the Interpersonal. Int Forum Psychoanal, 1997;6: 175-184. Stockholm. ISSN 0803-706X. The goal of this communication is to uncover a hitherto unacknowledged interpersonal aspect in Freud: his implicit dyadic conception of symptom formation and interpretation, the competing claims of the object relation and the interpersonal schools notwithstanding. It is argued that Freud delineated a number of models of symptom formation: a drive, dream, and a dyadic, or relational model. I have renamed the dyadic model the love model? This has implications concerning areas of consensus and conflict among the various psychoanalytic schools of thought.

Review essay: Narcissism and the interpersonal self.

Interpersonal approaches to the concept of a core self are explored in a review of Narcissism and the Interpersonal Self (John Fiscalini and Alan Grey, Editors). The role of the self as system and self as identity - both the interpersonal, adaptive self and the personal, core self - is used to understand the evolution of the Interpersonal School and its varied approaches to narcissism

Ferenczi and the interpersonal school: A study of political climates in psychoanalysis

Abstract Ferenczi and Sullivan developed many similar clinical ideas but the historical evidence indicates that essentially they were developed independently and rested on very different theoretical premises. This conclusion runs counter to the current ideology of ecumenism which blurs intellectual differences. The history of American psychoanalytic thought can be divided into three phases: the first one of purification (until about 1970), the second of agglomeration (from 1970 to the present), and the third of investigation (emerging in the putative future). Were clinical and theoretical differences resolved by a scientific investigation, then Ferenczi's martyrdom and Sullivan's excommunication would have been avoided.

The psychiatrist as shaman: Sullivan and schizophrenia.

This paper describes an analogy between the primitive shaman's emotional illness, and its control, and the schizophrenic episodes of Harry Stack Sullivan, the founder of the interpersonal school of psychiatry. Like the primitive shaman, Sullivan partially overcame his illnesses, drawing from his psychoses the insights through which he healed others.

An interpersonal approach to child therapy: the treatment of children and adolescents from an interpersonal point of view

At the book's outset, the author sets down principles taken from the views of leading theoreticians of the interpersonal school, and then describes some of the methods of treatment that are consistent with this type of approach. He emphasizes the use of metaphor. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc

Countertransference and Psychoanalytic Technique

This paper examines the evolution of the concept of counter-transference, with particular emphasis on its relationship to psychoanalytic technique. Freud's original idea that countertransference means unconscious interference with an analyst's ability to understand patients has been broadened during the past forty years: current usage often includes all of the emotional reactions of the analyst at work. Some factors that have contributed to this shift are the introduction of the structural hypothesis, the impact of Kleinian and interpersonal schools on the theory of technique, the effect of analysts' experience in working with more severely ill patients, and the diffuse consequences of certain recent cultural and intellectual trends. The benefits as well as some potential disadvantages in this shift toward a more inclusive conceptualization are discussed.

Bringing the Arrows Back In: On the Recursivity Assumptions in School Process Models

School process models in the tradition of those introduced by Sewell and his colleagues have identified interpersonal influences as central to the maintenance of differences in goal orientations across SES levels. These differences in goal orientations, in turn, are the most immediate causes of the attainment differentials observed later as youth complete their schooling and enter the world of work. Documentation of this social-psychological process typically has come from recursive structural equations models in which this particular step-wise flow of influence is entertained and other plausible possibilities are precluded. The present study examines the tenability of these recursive constraints by estimating two alternative specifications: (1) a nonrecursive model in which cross-sectional measures of interpersonal influence, educational plans, curriculum placement, and school performance all are simultaneously determined, and (2) a longitudinal recursive model, in which earlier school process measures are allowed to affect each later school process variable. These estimations indicate that significant others offer support in response to students' expressed plans for college but are themselves ineffectual as agents of socialization. This pattern is in striking contrast to that obtained under the recursive specification, and suggests that the evidence in favor of the social-psychological interpretation may be fundamentally flawed.

Assessing social competencies in lower income preschool children

This study examined social competencies in 4-year-old, lower income, nonwhite preschool children in a replication of work by Shure, Spivack, and Jaeger. Age differential interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills were investigated, i.e., ability to generate alternative solutions to interpersonal problems, consequential thinking, and school achievement as they relate to behavioral adjustment ratings by teachers and independent observers. A teacher's rating of a child as aberrant or adjusted predicted an independent observer's rating of that child in a naturalistic setting. Children who were rated as adjusted by their teachers had significantly higher scores on an achievement inventory than those children who were rated aberrant, but the study did not find the predicted relationship between problem-solving thinking and adjustment.

Adolescent Drug Abuses—A Problem of Interpersonal Relations and School Organization

This paper stresses the importance of listening to students and to each other, and the willingness to explore together those areas of personal concern as they exist in individuals and organizational and administrative operation for an effective drug education program. The idea of total school commitment is emphasized and the importance of every classroom becoming a drug prevention scene is clearly defined. The importance of the individual students' need for identity is stressed. The entire school operation concentrates on this concept, the major thrust being that only when the individual becomes aware of himself and his behavior can group awareness be understood.