Authenticity and the Psychology of Choice in the Analyst

Bibliographic Data

ID9232255
AuthorsMichael J Bader (0009-0000-4334-1938, 457 Spruce St., San Francisco, CA 94118, corresponding author)
Year1995
Volume64
Issue2
Pages282-305
Publication date1995-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Psychoanalytic Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-2828 • E-ISSN: 2167-4086
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21674086.1995.11927453
PMID7652103
OpenAlexW2420580882
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited15

There is a growing appreciation of an ethic of authenticity in analytic technique, a trend related to a recognition of the engagement of the spontaneous, unconscious dimension of the analyst's mind in the clinical situation. This liberatory trend in our theory of technique can and should be elaborated to take account of situations in which the analyst deliberately and strategically attempts to influence the patient for both analytic and therapeutic purposes. There is a complex, dialectical relationship between intentionally planning to provide mutative relational experiences for a patient and the irreducible emotional responsivity that marks every analytic encounter. It is suggested that the dangers of the patient's compliance with and idealization of the analyst usually associated with the analyst's deliberate enacting of attitudes presumed to be mutative are not necessarily inevitable

Cognitive psychology · Compliance (psychology) · Dialectic · Dimension (graph theory) · Epistemology · Idealization · Projective identification · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Unconscious mind · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Psychological Testing and Assessment · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology