Fostering Independence - Helping and Caring in Psychodynamic Therapies (Paperback)

Freud's psychoanalysis and its original representative in the UK, the British Psychoanalytic Society, have gone through unavoidable developments over the decades of their existence. We now have innumerable organizations training professionals in very diverse forms of psychodynamic therapies and it can be difficult to recognize the original sources of their theories and practices. This multiplication of trainings has led to an ever-increasing number of theoretical postulates that have come to be adopted as dogmas. Examples are transference and counter-transference, negative impulses, separation anxiety, the importance of the setting and the importance given to the patient's past and present life outside the consulting room. The present application of the new definitions of old concepts has led to a concept of therapy where the analyst/therapist/counselor comes to be seen as the central figure in the patient's life and which creates and fosters a situation of dependence on the availability of the professional. The papers in this book consider some of these issues and stress the importance of considering analysis/therapy/counseling as means of enabling the patient to lead an independent life."