Unusual Interventions: Alterations of the Frame, Method, and Relationship in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

Author(s) : Salman Akhtar

Book Details

Publisher : Routledge
Published : 2011
Cover : Paperback
Pages : 250
Category :
Psychoanalysis
Category 2 :
Individual Psychotherapy
Catalogue No : 30468
ISBN 13 : 9781855758971
ISBN 10 : 1855758970

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Radical departures from the set and familiar rules of technique often become necessary in the course of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. These can include conducting a session outside the office, giving advice, not charging fees, talking about oneself, giving a gift to the patient, and so on. Such interventions have so far remained imbued with mystery or, worse, have been the staple of cocktail party conversations. Unusual Interventions brings a variety of exceptional measures together to highlight their indications, risks, and their potential anchors in psychoanalytic theory of human relatedness. In accomplishing this, the book itself becomes an unusual addition to the literature on the technique of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.

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Reviews and Endorsements

'This book is a godsend to those of us who view psychotherapy not as an orthodox technique but an art of the open mind and learned heart. Notions of "standard practice" are useful to therapists, especially early in our careers, but even more valuable are opportunities to learn how seasoned practitioners think, how they may translate their understanding of a person's suffering into creative exceptions to good general rules. In the heyday of psychoanalysis, a "classical" technique was idealized, sometimes whether or not the patient was helped. A current parallel to this elevation of means over ends is the pressure on clinicians of all orientations to manualize our work - as if one size should fit all regardless of a patient's unique personality or context. In this welcome volume, nine seasoned therapists describe clinical challenges that called for an exceptional response. Beginning practitioners will find inspiration in their honest, creative, and humane accounts. Experienced therapists, who will recognize the struggle that goes into the occasional throwing out of the rulebook, will find Unusual Interventions compelling and confirming.'
- Nancy McWilliams, PhD, Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology

About the Author(s)

Salman Akhtar, MD, is professor of psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College and a training and supervising analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. He has served on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. His more than 450 publications include twenty-three solo authored books – Broken Structures (1992), Quest for Answers (1995), Inner Torment (1999), Immigration and Identity (1999), New Clinical Realms (2003), Objects of Our Desire (2005), Regarding Others (2007), Turning Points in Dynamic Psychotherapy (2009), The Damaged Core (2009), Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2009), Immigration and Acculturation (2011), Matters of Life and Death (2011), Psychoanalytic Listening (2013), Good Stuff (2013), Sources of Suffering (2014), No Holds Barred (2016), A Web of Sorrow (2017), Mind, Culture, and Global Unrest (2018), Silent Virtues (2019), Tales of Transformation (2022), In Leaps and Bounds (2022), and In Short (2024) – as well as sixty-nine edited or coedited volumes in psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Dr. Akhtar has delivered many prestigious addresses and lectures including, most significantly, the inaugural address at the first IPA-Asia Congress in Beijing, China (2010). Dr. Akhtar is the recipient of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Best Paper of the Year Award (1995), the Margaret Mahler Literature Prize (1996), the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians’ Sigmund Freud Award (2000), the American College of Psychoanalysts’ Laughlin Award (2003), the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Edith Sabshin Award (2000), Columbia University’s Robert Liebert Award for Distinguished Contributions to Applied Psychoanalysis (2004), the American Psychiatric Association’s Kun Po Soo Award (2004), the Irma Bland Award for being the Outstanding Teacher of Psychiatric Residents in the country (2005), and the Nancy Roeske Award (2012). He received the Sigourney Award (2013), which is the most prestigious honor in the field of psychoanalysis. Dr. Akhtar is an internationally sought speaker and teacher, and his books have been translated in many languages, including German, Turkish, and Romanian. His interests are wide and he has served as the film review editor for the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, and is currently serving as the book review editor for the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. He has published eighteen collections of poetry and serves as a scholar-in-residence at the Inter-Act Theatre Company in Philadelphia. His Selected Papers (Vols I–X) were recently published and released at a festive event held at the Freud House & Museum in London.