Loving Psychoanalysis: Technique and Theory in the Therapeutic Relationship

Written by an analyst who loves doing psychoanalysis, and who believes that psychoanalysis is a fundamentally loving endeavor. Susan S. Levine argues that the proper working attitude of the analyst is not one of neutrality, in the sense of the blank screen, but one of loving. This love should be expressed through the deepest empathy of which the analyst is capable, through the disciplined use of the arts and crafts of attention and interpretation, through thoughtful abstinence, through considered anonymity, and through the inevitable self-revelations and necessary self-disclosures that each particular patient requires. The chapters explore overlapping interdisciplinary themes, each chapter addressing elements of both theory and technique. How do the analyst's and patient's wishes to create and to be (re)created affect the treatment? What is the role of courage in the clinical endeavor for both analyst and patient? Why do analysts love doing psychoanalysis and why can psychoanalysis be thought of as aesthetic? What is the "self" of the analyst in self-revelation and self-disclosure, and how can we think about this technical issue in a fresh way?