Related Experiment Videos
On trying something new: effort and practice in psychoanalytic change.
The Psychoanalytic Quarterly
|August 24, 2000
Summary
Successful psychoanalytic change requires patients to actively practice new thinking and behaviors outside therapy. These self-initiated changes, built on insights from the therapeutic relationship, solidify lasting mental health improvements.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Psychoanalysis
Background:
- Psychoanalytic literature emphasizes the role of insight and transference in therapeutic change.
- Previous research has explored the interplay between action and self-understanding within the analytic setting.
Observation:
- This paper highlights the critical role of the analysand's active, self-initiated attempts at behavioral and cognitive change outside the therapy session.
- These extra-analytic efforts are founded on insights and experiences gained during the transference.
Findings:
- Successful psychoanalytic change necessitates the analysand's active engagement in practicing altered patterns of thinking, feeling, and relating.
- These self-initiated changes are crucial for consolidating and transferring therapeutic gains.
- Case vignettes illustrate the implementation and impact of these extra-analytic efforts.
Implications:
- Contemporary psychoanalytic technique should incorporate greater attention to the analysand's efforts in implementing therapeutic gains.
- Understanding the relationship between praxis (practice) and self-knowledge can broaden therapeutic strategies.
- This approach supports the consolidation and lasting impact of psychoanalytic treatment.