The analyst's style and its impact on the analytic process: overcoming a patient-analyst stalemate.
Analysts have characteristic styles in working with their patients. At times of crisis or stalemate, an alteration in style may facilitate the progress of the treatment. To illustrate the impeding effects of an analytic style at a particular phase of analysis, I describe a stalemate in the analysis of a severely self-critical patient. Recognition of the limiting effects of style on the treatment became apparent in a countertransference enactment, influenced by the patient-analyst match. Self-analysis and alteration in the characteristic style of the analyst resolved the stalemate and enabled the analytic work to progress.
Kantrowitz
J L
JL
Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
D000328:Adult; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003379:Countertransference; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010553:Personality Development; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012649:Self Concept; D012752:Shame