Intimate Attachments: Toward a New Self Psychology [Hardcover]

Shane Et Al. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1572302704 | ISBN-13: 978-1572302709 | Publication Date: November 7, 1997 | Edition: 1

Offering new ways of thinking about the intimate connections between analyst and patient, this lucid, clinically oriented volume presents an innovative model of psychoanalytic change. The authors integrate current findings in self psychology, attachment and infant research, and developmental systems theory to demonstrate the transformative power of interpersonal sharing between both members of the dyad. Interweaving conceptual material and careful guidelines for practice with case studies and clinical commentary, Intimate Attachments illuminates the power of the psychoanalytic process and affords readers a heightened level of creativity, freedom, and spontaneity in their therapeutic work. This volume will be of benefit to mental health practitioners and students interested in psychodynamic theory and treatment.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The authors of Intimate Attachments are consummate integrationists. They masterfully weave together conceptual strands from classical analysis, self psychology, intersubjectivity theory, motivational systems theory, attachment theory, infant research, and principles of nonlinear systems into a comprehensive, multidimensional, developmentally based psychoanalytic framework that is both a significant theoretical advance and extremely useful clinically. The therapeutic implications of this framework, emphasizing the transformative potential of positive new experiences with the analyst, are immensely important and thought-provoking." --Robert D. Stolorow, PhD, Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles

"Shane, Shane and Gales' new book, Intimate Attachments, is a brilliant integration of systems theory, attachment research and self psychology. Their application of the theory of bi-directional co-construction to the clinical encounter, and to the role of a mutual intimate attachment in therapeutic change, richly expands our understanding of the analyst's as well as the patient's development. This is an enormously valuable book for the practicing clinician, richly illustrated with clinical examples, written in a fresh, accessible style." --Beatrice Beebe, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, Faculty member at NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, The Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, Columbia University Psychoanalytic Center

"This is a masterful integration of self-psychology, attachment theory, and developmental systems perspectives. The authors do a superb job of extracting the major principles from each of these perspectives in a clear and cogent manner. There is a strong connection with contemporary research and theory in developmental psychology; because of this the authors preserve and yet transform psychoanalytic theory, and in so doing revitalize it as a clinical framework. The book is beautifully written. It is thoroughly lucid and engaging." --L. Alan Sroufe, PhD, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota

"A book so clear, cogent, and compelling that the reader is able to see its fundamental and revolutionary message as unassailable. The authors reposition psychoanalysis as a developmental experience and support their perspective with elegance and enthusiasm." --Arnold Goldberg, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Rush Medical College; Training and Supervising Analysis, Institute for Psychoanalysis, Chicago

"This is a remarkable and outstanding achievement. It is the best integration of psychoanalytic theory and attachment theory available so far. It reflects the authors' rich experience of the self-psychology tradition and a remarkable grasp of the attachment literature. It succeeds where many others have failed in showing the value of integrating these related and expanding bodies of work rather than carping from the sidelines of the inadequacies of one or other approaches. It is a genuine work of integration which could dramatically advance the field. The authors are to be congratulated for the imagination and sensitivity with which they identify clinically pertinent aspects of attachment theory and combine this and use compelling clinical illustrations to bring the theoretical integration alive and relevant to clinical work." --Peter Fonagy, Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis, University of London

About the Author

Morton Shane, MD, and Estelle Shane, PhD, are founding members and past co-presidents of the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, of which Mary Gales, MD, is the current co-president. All three coauthors are on the clinical faculty of the Department of Adult and Child Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: Guilford Press; 1 edition (November 7, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572302704
• ISBN-13: 978-1572302709
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,014,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a good introduction to contemporary self psychology, March 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Intimate Attachments: Toward a New Self Psychology (Hardcover)

Intimate Attachments is a much needed book - one that clearly fills the space between developmental theory (a la Bowlby) and one of the major schools of thought in contemporary psychoanalytic theory (i.e., Kohutian self psychology). With a thorough discussion of theoretical dovetailing and each theory's assumptive underpinnings, the authors provide a rich yet accessible framework for understanding patients from a "new" (integrative) perspective. A reworking of the notions of transference and intimacy (within the therapeutic relationship) rounds out the theoretical picture, which is then fleshed out with numerous vignettes of work with children, adolescents, and adults. This book provides a good introduction to self psychology to those who are new to the field, yet offers something for the veteran as well.