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Therapeutic misalliances
International Journal of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
|January 1, 1975
Summary
This study examines therapeutic misalliances in patient-therapist relationships. It details how patients unconsciously perceive and attempt to resolve therapist countertransference issues, impacting the therapeutic alliance.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Psychiatry
- Psychoanalysis
Background:
- The patient-therapist relationship is central to psychotherapy.
- Therapeutic misalliances, deviations from the optimal working alliance, can impede treatment.
- Understanding these dynamics is crucial for effective therapeutic interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To define and illustrate the concept of therapeutic misalliances.
- To explore patient and therapist efforts in creating and modifying misalliances.
- To examine the patient's role in addressing therapist's countertransference difficulties.
Main Methods:
- Literature review on psychopathology in the patient-therapist relationship.
- Presentation and analysis of two extended clinical vignettes.
- Exploration of conscious and unconscious misalliance dynamics.
Main Results:
- Patients can unconsciously perceive and attempt to 'cure' therapist countertransference issues contributing to misalliances.
- Therapeutic misalliances have both interfering and helpful aspects.
- Recognition and analytic resolution of misalliances are key therapeutic processes.
Conclusions:
- Therapeutic misalliances offer insights into patient-therapist dynamics and unconscious processes.
- Understanding the motives behind misalliances and the therapist's role is vital.
- The adaptational-interactional framework and therapist's personal factors are important considerations.