Projective Identification A Contemporary Introduction

This clear and thoughtful book by Robert Waska provides an accessible introduction to Projective Identification and the role it plays in internal and external life. Waska explores how Projective Identification is the foundation for much of psychic life, driving internal phantasy, influencing interpersonal behavior, and contributing to the transference/countertransference environment.This bookcontains several case studies which explore and expand on the concepts described and which demonstrate how a psychotherapist can understand, contain, and interpret the states patients seek help with. Additionally, this book introduces a clinical technique which is intended to tame the underlying emotional conflicts. Part of the popular Routledge Introductions to Contemporary Psychoanalysis series, this book will be essential to students of psychoanalysis, as well as academics and practitioners familiarising themselves with Projective Identification in a clinical setting.

01. The Concept and Its Clinical Impact 02. Clinical Aims in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy 03. The Form and Function of PI 04. Multiple Motives and Meanings 05. Working With and Through PI 06. Taming It in Psychotherapy 07. Reaching Towards and Pulling Away 08. The Clinical Exchange 09. The Evolution of PI Patterns 10. Shifting Internal Dynamics 11. Universal Experience 12. Clinical Moments within PI 13. Interpretive Efforts 14. The Fear of Change 15. Coping, Communicating, and Connecting

Robert Waska, PhD, MFT, LPCC, provides psychoanalytic psychotherapy for individuals and couples in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has written fourteen textbooks on the Modern Kleinian approach to treatment, teaches and consults internationally, and is a contributing author for both The Handbook of Contemporary Psychotherapy and The Handbook of Hate .