The Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalysis

Abstinence and Informative Experiences

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8335339
AutoresJudith Fingert Chused (1805 Randolph St., N. W. Washington, DC 20011-5339, autor de correspondencia)
Año1996
Volumen44
Número4
Páginas1047-1071
Fecha de publicación1996-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0003-0651 • E-ISSN: 1941-2460
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/000306519604400404
PMID8987010
OpenAlexW2042036726
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas20
Referencias citadas17

In recent years a number of analytic concepts have been subject to scrutiny, with the value of interpretations, the usefulness of abstinence, the possibility of neutrality, all questioned. One reason for the skepticism about interpretations, in particular, is that before a patient can use an interpretation for psychic change, his perceptual frame must change, a process that is rarely initiated by the verbal content of an interpretation alone. Instead, alterations in perception usually require experiences which are discordant with expectations. In this paper the author demonstrates how the nonverbal elements of an intervention, the action communications, provide informative experiences, creating the dissonance between expectation and eventuality which makes psychic cnange possible. Case vignettes are presented to illustrate this point as well as to support the idea that when nonverbal experiences contribute to lasting change within a patient, the therapeutic benefit does not accrue primarily from the gratification provided by the experience, but from how the experience informs the patient about his mode of thinking, perceiving, and reacting

Abstinence · Action (physics) · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Psychoanalytic Therapy · Psychotherapist · Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications