What do patients want?: psychoanalytic perspectives from the couch

"`Most accounts of a patient's experience in analysis are autobiographical and, therefore, highly selective for good and bad. Finally, here is a level-headed account from sensitive interviews that explore patients' experiences on the couch. This is a beautiful report of a qualitative study, conducted with great respect and compassion, which moves the field forward by presenting this unique process through patients' narratives rather than via the sometimes rose-tinted spectacles of the clinician. We should be indebted to Hill for the clarity and integrity of her representation and to the patients for the sometimes painfully honest and fascinating accounts of what they encountered along the analytic journey. This is a remarkable opportunity for all clinicians to take a look at themselves at work. It should be compulsory reading for all those in training and for all those who practise psychoanalytic therapy.' Peter Fonagy, PhD, Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis, Head of Research Department, UCL, London; Chief Executive, the Anna Freud Centre, London.

`Christine Hill's book is a novel addition to the literature on the outcome of psychoanalysis... Reading the detailed, often poignant, and only rarely cynical, comments by these ex-analysands is deeply gratifying to the salesman, the consumer, the voyeur, the student, and the researcher within all of us. Hill's comprehensive treatment of the subject leaves us with insights that can only enhance the grasp and praxis of our enterprise.' Salman Akhtar, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College, Training and Supervising Analyst, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia.

`The considerable strength of this book is its intelligent and original review of the basics of technique like transference and countertransference, with respect to patients' grasp of what psychoanaysis is; comments on the remarkable paucity of literature of any type from patients' perspectives; with a concluding chapter on the network of findings useful to the clinician. I was particularly struck by the findings regarding power dynamics in the section on patient--partner not patient--victim; the orientation of the patients as part of establishing a working alliance; comments on the rigidity or flexibility of the analyst's personality vis a vis theoretical school; and the role of the patient in setting outcomes. Dr Hill has produced a gem that will linger for a long time in the minds of its readers.' Stuart W. Twemlow, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Menninger Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College Medicine, Houston, Texas Teaching Faculty, Houston Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute, Senior Psychiatrist, The Menninger Clinic Hospital "--Book jacket.

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