Relational Theory and the Practice of Psychotherapy

This important book explores a new direction that can enable therapists of any orientation to better understand and help their patients. While psychoanalysis has traditionally been seen as a world apart from cognitive-behavioral therapy and many other psychotherapeutic approaches, recent developments in the field are changing that. Relational theory, in emphasizing how relationships shape personality, diverges in key ways from traditional psychoanalytic assumptions and therapeutic practices. At the same time, it preserves, and even extends, the depth of understanding of human experience and psychological conflict that has always been the strength of psychoanalysis. Through probing theoretical analysis and illuminating examples, the book offers innovative and powerful ways to revitalize clinical practice.

This important and innovative book explores a new direction in psychoanalytic thought that can expand and deepen clinical practice. Relational psychoanalysis diverges in key ways from the assumptions and practices that have traditionally characterized psychoanalysis. At the same time, it preserves, and even extends, the profound understanding of human experience and psychological conflict that has always been the strength of the psychoanalytic approach. Through probing theoretical analysis and illuminating examples, the book offers new and powerful ways to revitalize clinical practice.See also Wachtel's Therapeutic Communication, Second Edition: Knowing What to Say When, an integrative, practical guide for therapists of all orientations.

1. Context and Relationship in Psychotherapy: An Introduction2. How Do We Understand Another Person? One-Person and Two-Person Perspectives3. The Dynamics of Personality: One-Person and Two-Person Views4. From Two-Person to Contextual: Beyond Infancy and the Consulting Room5. Drives, Relationships, and the Foundations of the Relational Point of View6. The Limits of the Archaeological Vision: Relational Theory and the CyclicalContextual Model7. Self-States, Dissociation, and the Schemas of Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity8. Exploration, Support, Self-Acceptance, and the School of Suspicion9. Insight, Direct Experience, and the Implications of a New Understanding of Anxiety10. Enactments, New Relational Experience, and Implicit Relational Knowing11. Confusions about Self-Disclosure: Real Issues, Pseudo-Issues, and the Inevitability of Trade-Offs12. The Inner World, the Outer World, and the Lived-In World: Mobilizing for Change in the Patients Daily Life

Paul L. Wachtel, PhD, is CUNY Distinguished Professor in the doctoral program in clinical psychology at City College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Yale University and is a graduate of the postdoctoral program in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy at New York University, where he is also a faculty member. Dr. Wachtel has lectured and given workshops throughout the world on psychotherapy, personality theory, and the applications of psychological theory and research to the major social issues of our time. He has been a leading voice for integrative thinking in the human sciences and was a cofounder of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration. Dr. Wachtel is a recipient of the Hans H. Strupp Memorial Award for psychoanalytic writing, teaching, and research; the Distinguished Psychologist Award from Division 29 (Psychotherapy) of the American Psychological Association (APA); and the Scholarship and Research Award from Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of APA.