This book explores family interaction and family psychoanalysis from varying standpoints used around the world. It illustrates these with extensive clinical cases discussed from varying perspectives. The book is the first in a series of volumes from the International Psychoanalytical Association's Working Group on Family and Couple Psychoanalysis, drawn from its ongoing research into comparative theories and methods of working analytically with families and couples, and with varying types of family structure. It also applies lessons from family psychoanalysis to analytic theory and to the practice of individual psychoanalysis.

In this time of vulnerable marriages and partnerships, many couples seek help for their relationships. Psychoanalytic couple therapy is a growing application of psychoanalysis for which training is not usually offered in most psychoanalytic and analytic psychotherapy programs.This book is both an advanced text for therapists and a primer for new students of couple psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Its twenty-eight chapters cover the major ideas underlying the application of psychoanalysis to couple therapy, many clinical illustrations of cases and problems in various dimensions of the work. The international group of authors comes from the International Psychotherapy Institute based in Washington, DC, and the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships (TCCR) in London. The result is a richly international perspective that nonetheless has theoretical and clinical coherence because of the shared vision of the authors.

Marriage and Family in Modern China is a groundbreaking psychoanalytic examination of how 70 years of widespread social change have transformed the intimacies of life in modern China. The book describes the evolution of marriage and family structure, from the ancient tradition of large families preferring sons, arranged marriages and devaluation of girls, to a contemporary dominance of free-choice marriages and families that now prefer to remain small even after the ending of the One Child Policy. David Scharff uses extensive reports of his psychoanalytic interventions to demonstrate how the residue of widespread trauma suffered by Chinese families during past centuries has interacted with the effects of rapid modernization to produce new patterns of individual identity, personal ambition and family structure. This wholly original book offers new insight into Chinese families for all those interested in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and in the intricacies of Chinese domestic life.

Marriage and Family in Modern China is a groundbreaking psychoanalytic examination of how 70 years of widespread social change have transformed the intimacies of life in modern China. The book describes the evolution of marriage and family structure, from the ancient tradition of large families preferring sons, arranged marriages and devaluation of girls, to a contemporary dominance of free-choice marriages and families that now prefer to remain small even after the ending of the One Child Policy. David Scharff uses extensive reports of his psychoanalytic interventions to demonstrate how the residue of widespread trauma suffered by Chinese families during past centuries has interacted with the effects of rapid modernization to produce new patterns of individual identity, personal ambition and family structure. This wholly original book offers new insight into Chinese families for all those interested in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and in the intricacies of Chinese domestic life.

`I liked this collection of papers very much and welcome the opportunity to become better acquainted with Fairbairn's work.' - Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing

Using Winnicott's classic paper as its starting point, this fascinating collection explores a range of clinical and theoretical psychoanalytic perspectives around relating to "the object." Each author approaches the topic from a different angle, switching among the patient's use of others in their internal and external lives, their use of their therapist, and the therapist's own use of their patients. The use of objects is susceptible to wide interpretation and elaboration; it is both a normal phenomenon and a marker for certain personal difficulties, or even psychopathologies, seen in clinical practice. While it is normal for people to relate to others through the lens of their internal objects in ways that give added meaning to aspects of their lives, it becomes problematic when people live as if devoid of a self and instead live almost exclusively through the others who form their internal worlds, often leading them to feel that they cannot be happy until and unless others change. Assessing the significance of objects among adult and child patients, groups and the group-as-object, and exploring Freud's own use of objects, The Use of the Object in Psychoanalysis will be of significant interest both to experienced psychoanalysts and psychotherapists and to trainees exploring important theoretical questions.

In this time of vulnerable marriages and partnerships, many couples seek help for their relationships. Psychoanalytic couple therapy is a growing application of psychoanalysis for which training is not usually offered in most psychoanalytic and analytic psychotherapy programs.This book is both an advanced text for therapists and a primer for new students of couple psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Its twenty-eight chapters cover the major ideas underlying the application of psychoanalysis to couple therapy, many clinical illustrations of cases and problems in various dimensions of the work. The international group of authors comes from the International Psychotherapy Institute based in Washington, DC, and the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships (TCCR) in London. The result is a richly international perspective that nonetheless has theoretical and clinical coherence because of the shared vision of the authors.

This book widens the scope of clinical and theoretical contributions on Couple and Family Psychoanalysis by collecting case presentations and discussions by analysts from Europe, North America, Latin America, China and Australia. The rich cross-fertilization across countries and analytic orientations stimulates cross-cultural thinking and deepens clinical exploration. In English language psychoanalysis, focus on object relations theory emphasizes internalization of early family figures in construction of the psyche, and their projective influence on others through continuing family interaction. Theories of the link and of the field explored in South America and Europe, shift focus from the internal life of the individual onto the influence of the other, and the way superordinate unconscious patterns introjected from previous generations are recreated by interacting members of families and couples, and in turn contribute to the continuing psychic evolution of individuals. Work in other cultures, such as China, brings us face to face with deep structures of thought and family organization that challenge Western psychoanalytic assumptions, even as those families are in rapid change themselves.

How do the fundamental elements of experience impact on the practice of psychotherapy? Dimensions of Psychotherapy, Dimensions of Experience explores the three basic elements of psychotherapy - time, space and number - summarising theory, setting it in context and bringing concepts to life with clinical illustrations. Michael Stadter and David Scharff bring together contributions describing how each of these elements, as well as their simple and direct manifestations in the physical world, also combine to form the psychological dimensions of symbolic reality both in the inner world and in the transactional world. They also reveal how, in encounters between patient and therapist, the combination of inner worlds form a new, uniquely psychological, fourth dimension that saturates the activity and experience of the other three elements. This book aims to increase our understanding of the action of the three dimensions of psychotherapy by looking at the elements that constitute the setting and process in which clinicians engage every day. The contributors, all of whom are experienced psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, connect their thinking on the dimensions to clinical practice by illustrating their ideas with case material and examining their impact on general treatment issues. This book will be useful to practicing psychotherapists and psychoanalysts and students of psychoanalysis and philosophy.

Established psychoanalytic/psychodynamic researchers and theorists bring the exploration of prejudice to a new level by examining how psychoanalysis might elucidate strategies that will eliminate prejudice.

In the last two decades, object relations theory has crossed the Atlantic and taken America by storm. The enthusiasm among American clinicians for the British School, however, has led to a host of problems related to the need to master a new terminology. The difficulty in assimilating object relations theory is one more example of the aphorism that America and England are two countries separated by a common language. The Scharffs have taken a giant step forward in assisting American therapists in their efforts to master the language of object relations theory. With this primer they have anticipated the reader's questions at every turn and have answered them in remarkably clear and readable prose. Terms like projective identification, holding, containment, and self are freed from obscurity and made entirely understandable to even the novice clinician. The authors then apply these concepts to a variety of clinical settings. The Scharffs are equally at home when doing individual, family, marital, group, or sex therapy. It is difficult to imagine any other team of authors who could provide such a comprehensive survey of the broad applications of object relations theory. Students in all the mental health professions will find this slim volume to be an extraordinarily useful introduction to the field.

Dr. David Scharff explores the role of sexuality in human relationships by combining his extensive experience in individual, marital, family, and sex therapy with theoretical contributions from object relations theory and child development.

In their groundbreaking A Primer of Object Relations, Jill Savege Scharff and David E. Scharff answered readers' questions about this burgeoning field in remarkably clear and readable prose. It is difficult to imagine any other team of authors who could provide such a comprehensive survey of the broad applications of object relations theory and in the second edition of this authoritative work, the Scharffs draw from their years of clinical experience to create an inclusive and up-to-date manual for object relations theory that is certain to become a classic in the field.

How do the fundamental elements of experience impact on the practice of psychotherapy? Dimensions of Psychotherapy, Dimensions of Experience explores the three basic elements of psychotherapy - time, space and number - summarising theory, setting it in context and bringing concepts to life with clinical illustrations. Michael Stadter and David Scharff bring together contributions describing how each of these elements, as well as their simple and direct manifestations in the physical world, also combine to form the psychological dimensions of symbolic reality both in the inner world and in the transactional world. They also reveal how, in encounters between patient and therapist, the combination of inner worlds form a new, uniquely psychological, fourth dimension that saturates the activity and experience of the other three elements. This book aims to increase our understanding of the action of the three dimensions of psychotherapy by looking at the elements that constitute the setting and process in which clinicians engage every day. The contributors, all of whom are experienced psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, connect their thinking on the dimensions to clinical practice by illustrating their ideas with case material and examining their impact on general treatment issues. This book will be useful to practicing psychotherapists and psychoanalysts and students of psychoanalysis and philosophy.

Fairbairn and Sutherland were radical psychoanalytic thinkers who deeply respected Freud's invention of psychoanalysis, but who disagreed with his idea that human infants are motivated by the need to discharge tension arising from sexual and aggressive instincts. Fairbairn argued on the contrary that what infants need is to be in a meaningful relationship, and Sutherland carried forward Fairbairn's thinking on the development of the person as a member of a social group.
International contributors set these psychoanalytic theorists in their philosophical and cultural context and discuss their acceptance in Germany and France. They re-examine Fairbairn and Sutherland's concepts in the light of current clinical experience, illuminate their concepts with contemporary psychoanalytic theories, and apply them in psychotherapy with children, adults, groups and families, and consultation to organisations.
This book will be valuable reading for all practicing and training psychotherapists andpsychoanalysts. It summarizes theory, sets it in context, and illustrated the concepts with clinical examples.

This book widens the scope of clinical and theoretical contributions on Couple and Family Psychoanalysis by collecting case presentations and discussions by analysts from Europe, North America, Latin America, China and Australia. The rich cross-fertilization across countries and analytic orientations stimulates cross-cultural thinking and deepens clinical exploration. In English language psychoanalysis, focus on object relations theory emphasizes internalization of early family figures in construction of the psyche, and their projective influence on others through continuing family interaction. Theories of the link and of the field explored in South America and Europe, shift focus from the internal life of the individual onto the influence of the other, and the way superordinate unconscious patterns introjected from previous generations are recreated by interacting members of families and couples, and in turn contribute to the continuing psychic evolution of individuals. Work in other cultures, such as China, brings us face to face with deep structures of thought and family organization that challenge Western psychoanalytic assumptions, even as those families are in rapid change themselves.

This book explores family interaction and family psychoanalysis from varying standpoints used around the world. It illustrates these with extensive clinical cases discussed from varying perspectives. The book is the first in a series of volumes from the International Psychoanalytical Association's Working Group on Family and Couple Psychoanalysis, drawn from its ongoing research into comparative theories and methods of working analytically with families and couples, and with varying types of family structure. It also applies lessons from family psychoanalysis to analytic theory and to the practice of individual psychoanalysis.

In this landmark book, David Scharff and Jill Savege Scharff, both psychoanalysts, develop a way of thinking about and working with the couple as a small group of two, held together as a tightly knit system by a commitment that is powerfully reinforced by the bond of mutual sexual pleasure.

Object relations theory has caused a fundamental reorientation of psychodynamic thought. In Object Relations Theory and Practice, Dr. David E. Scharff acclimates readers to the language and culture of this therapeutic perspective and provides carefully selected excerpts from seminal theorists as well as explanations of their thinking and clinical experience. He offers readers an unparalleled resource for understanding object relations psychotherapy and theory and applying it to the practice of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. The book's sequence establishes the centrality of relationships in this theory: the internalization of experience with parents, splitting, projective identification, the role of the relationship between mother and young child in development, and transference and countertransference in the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. This book will introduce students to the basics, to the widening scope of object relations theory, and to its application to psychoanalysis and individual, group, and family psychotherapy.

Rising above the polemics surrounding sexual and physical abuse, David and Jill Savege Scharff bring a relational perspective to the integration of psychoanalytic and trauma theories in order to understand the effects of overwhelming physical and psychological trauma, including sexual abuse, injury, and birth defect. The Scharffs draw from their object relations therapy with individuals, families, and couples recovering from trauma and abundance of relevant clinical examples described in their characteristically personal and vivid style. Their treatment approach, influenced by Fairbairn, Klein, and Winnicott, is respectful of the patient's experience. They advise avoiding premature interpretations that impose their own reality on patients because this traumatizes them just as their abuser did. In order to work well with these traumatized people, the clinician must be able to tolerate ambiguity and sustain long term therapy, for it takes the patience of waiting and wondering to recover deeply repressed memories, explore them thoroughly, and evaluate their meaning and importance for the patient. The Scharffs' demonstration of clinical processes helps therapists contain their own countertransference to trauma so as to be fully present with their clients and consistently able to confront abuse patterns in society. The object relations approach not only deals with trauma's impact on the individual but views it in its cultural and interpersonal context as well. Society alternately emphasizes and ignores trauma so that an encapsulated traumatic experience festers until the next eruption, just as dissociative defenses segmentally protect and exaggerate traumatic experience in the individual case. The Scharffs review Kramer's Mahlerian approach, McDougall's insights into the silence of the psyche and the words of the soma, and Anzieu's elaboration of the body ego. They resuscitate Freud's seduction hypothesis and the traumatic basis of the repetition compulsion. They compare and contrast the concepts of re

Using Winnicott's classic paper as its starting point, this fascinating collection explores a range of clinical and theoretical psychoanalytic perspectives around relating to "the object." Each author approaches the topic from a different angle, switching among the patient's use of others in their internal and external lives, their use of their therapist, and the therapist's own use of their patients. The use of objects is susceptible to wide interpretation and elaboration; it is both a normal phenomenon and a marker for certain personal difficulties, or even psychopathologies, seen in clinical practice. While it is normal for people to relate to others through the lens of their internal objects in ways that give added meaning to aspects of their lives, it becomes problematic when people live as if devoid of a self and instead live almost exclusively through the others who form their internal worlds, often leading them to feel that they cannot be happy until and unless others change. Assessing the significance of objects among adult and child patients, groups and the group-as-object, and exploring Freud's own use of objects, The Use of the Object in Psychoanalysis will be of significant interest both to experienced psychoanalysts and psychotherapists and to trainees exploring important theoretical questions.

Offers an indepth and thoughtful exploration of the relevance of psychoanalysis to family therapy.

Substantial contributions from an internationally varied host of authors use newly available material to develop novel aspects of Fairbairn s life and theory, reviewing the basic ideas of his theory, clinical application, and new developments built on his object relations vision of psychoanalysis. Comprising thirty-nine papers, thirty-six of which are original to this volume, the book is divided into four main sections historical, clinical, theoretical and applied. Fairbairn s contribution to object-relations theory is rehearsed and the future development of Fairbairn s work is considered. Fairbairn s relationship with Guntrip and Winnicott is explored, his influence on a philosophical and a clinical understanding of multiplicity is assessed, his social and historical papers are mined for his views on prejudice and the social order, and new models of clinical configurations suggested. Fairbairn s relationship with and influence on Mitchell is investigated from different perspectives and his position within Scottish and psychoanalytic history also developed. Fairbairn s contribution to couple therapy, to an understanding of the Oedipus situation, to the acceptance and understanding of literary works and to child welfare are all broached. The influence of religion and Fairbairn s own understanding of his gender identity are explored based on newly available documents including some self-analytic notes. Fairbairn s influence in South America and in particular Argentina is manifest in a variety of contributions, and his significant but generally forgotten or ignored contribution to psychoanalytic aesthetics is assessed."

The introduction of psychoanalysis to China over the last twenty years brings a clash between Eastern and Western philosophical backgrounds. Chinese patients, therapists, and trainees struggle with assumptions inherent in an analytic attitude steeped in Western ideas of individualism that are often at odds with a Chinese Confucian ethic of respect for the family and the work group. The situation is further complicated by the rapid evolution of Chinese culture itself, emerging from years of trauma, new economics, and the one-child policy of the last generation that has introduced a new Chinese brand of individualism and new family structure that are not equivalent to those of the West. This volume breaks new ground in exploring these issues and challenges to the introduction of analytic therapies into China, not only from the viewpoint of Western teachers, but also from Chinese teachers, clinicians, anthropologists, and observers.