Building upon 50 years of clinical experience, Fred Busch addresses a central question facing all psychoanalysts: What is essential to a psychoanalytic curative process, and what are the methods of working that can bring this about?

This book investigates the analytic relationship as a process of giving patients the freedom to think the unthinkable (to build representations) and change repeated patterns of action into the possibility of reflection. This entails careful examination of central psychoanalytic concepts such as transference, resistances, and the ethics of countertransference as a guide to a patient's unconscious, in addition to newer ideas, such as the notion of the analyst as a memory keeper of patients' lost objects. In its final part, the book presents observations on how analysts function as part of analytic organizations, and the various roles they take on to develop an "analytic identity".

Continuing decades of significant theoretical work on clinical concepts, this book offers a unique perspective on how psychoanalysts and psychotherapists can work effectively to achieve the best possible outcomes for their patients.

About the Author

Fred Busch, PhD, is a training and supervising psychoanalyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute. He has published 8 books and over 80 articles on psychoanalytic technique. Most recently, he wrote A Fresh Look at Psychoanalytic Technique, and he is editor of Psychoanalysis at the Crossroads and The Ego and Id: 100 Years Later (with Natacha Delgado).

Reviews

'With his unmistakable sharp and essential style, Fred Busch takes us on a high-quality free-thinking experience of contemporary psychoanalysis, theoretical-clinical research, fundamental concepts such as free association, the preconscious and action language, and the priceless 'being in the neighbourhood', as well as institutional processes and training for a profession as special as ours.

Maintaining an enviable critical and self-analytical serenity, Busch cultivates a natural, genuine curiosity towards the contributions of his colleagues, which then leads him to formulate his own complex, documented, finely thought-out and well-integrated vision of the analytical events on display. An extraordinary book by a true analytical mind.'

Stefano Bolognini, IPA past-president, training and supervising analyst, Italian Psychoanalytic Society, Bologna, Italy

'In this thoughtful book, the prolific psychoanalytic author, Fred Busch, contributes another chapter in his ongoing exploration of a contemporary Freudian perspective on a theory and technique of psychoanalytic treatment. Busch is one of our clearest thinkers, with a wide-ranging knowledge of multiple perspectives. This allows him to compare and contrast his view with other theories of technique, always in a respectful manner. The first two chapters of this book capture the essence of his views on how analysis cures. This is followed by a series of chapters where Busch explores clinical issues, like transference, and finds new meaning in them. In the second section of the book Busch raises issues about our profession that are rarely explored (ex., The Gossip, The Good-Enough Discussant, etc.). In short this is a book, along with Creating a Psychoanalytic Mind, that needs to be read and studied.'

Virginia Ungar, past IPA president, training and supervising analyst, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Book Information
ISBN 9781032658681
Author Fred Busch
Format Paperback
Page Count 206
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 410g