"Only in the meeting": an unexpected visitor
Article Abstract:
An analyst describes how her experiences with a young woman patient who brought an iguana to therapy shaped her attitude toward her profession and toward subsequent patients. The woman, who often wore high boots, black leather pants and a black shirt, enjoyed sado-masochist activities and kept pet snakes and iguanas. Despite her bizarre appearance and proclivities, this woman struggled with similar issues as many other people, including therapists. If analysts approach patients with humility and openness, patients will feel comfortable about revealing their feelings.
Publication Name: The American Journal of Psychoanalysis
Subject: Psychology and mental health
ISSN: 0002-9548
Year: 1996
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On not interpreting: the metaphor of the baby, enactment, and transitional experience
Article Abstract:
A patient's developmental arrest position results from a failure to use symbolic thought, and therefore, the analyst should focus on actively facilitating this capacity rather than acting as a passive container. However, the analyst's countertransference participation should be voluntary and strategic. Play, enactment, and delaying interpretation are methods that can be used by the therapist to develop symbolic thought by allowing the patient to see the analyst as a transitional object.
Publication Name: The American Journal of Psychoanalysis
Subject: Psychology and mental health
ISSN: 0002-9548
Year: 1996
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The happy home myth: the female experience
Article Abstract:
The key to solving the happy home myth may lie in validating one's experience so that one's understanding and emotions about the experience agree. The happy home myth is developed during childhood by children who do not receive emotional support from their caregivers. Cases of adults seeking psychotherapy because their happy home myths have failed and four kinds of happy home myths created by women are presented and discussed.
Publication Name: The American Journal of Psychoanalysis
Subject: Psychology and mental health
ISSN: 0002-9548
Year: 1996
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