Beyond Interpretation Toward a Revised Theory for Psychoanalysis

Hailed as "important book certain to stir extended psychoanalytic debate" "(American Journal of Psychiatry)" on publication in 1979, Gedo's "Beyond Interpretation" set forth a radically new theoretical framework and clinical agenda for modern psychoanalysis. The theoretical framework revolved around Gedo's reconceptualization of human personality as a hierarchy of personal aims culminating in a "self-organization." The clinical agenda followed from the need for interventions that regularly went "beyond interpretation" in helping patients cope with primitive illusions, failures of integration, and traumatization. In this extensive revision of the 1979 text, Gedo refines his original formulations in light of the empirical findings and clinical advances of the past 15 years.

A Psychology of Personal Aims: The Conceptual Baseline. A Revised Theory of Psychoanalytic Therapy. Orientation for Clinical Section. First Clinical Illustration: A Disturbance of the Self-Organization. Discussion of the Case of Nick. Second Clinical Illustration: A Case of Fixation on Archaic Goals and Values. Discussion of the Case of Kate. Third Clinical Illustration: The Disordered Self as Conflicting Systems of Values. Discussion of the Case of Henry. Orientation for Theoretical Section. The Theoretical Yield. Metapsychological Considerations. The Epigenesis of the Self-Organization: Formation of the Self. Later Stages in the Epigenesis of the Self-Organization. The Mind in Disorder. Reprise: On the Mode of Action in Psychoanalytic Therapy.

John E. Gedo, M.D., retired in 1990 as Training and Supervising Analyst, Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. He is the author of numerous books for Analytic Press, including The Biology of Clinical Encounters (1991) and The Mind in Disorder (1998).