Customer Reviews

Transcending The Self: An Object Relations Model of Psychoanalytic Therapy

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This is a great book for practicing therapists interested in curent psychoanalytic theory. It is well written, clear, readable and includes numerous case examples to illustrate key points. The focus is on clarifying the differences between ego psychology, self psychology, and relational theories and proposing a neo-Winnicottian model that attempts to integrate and build on the best aspects of these. As a practicing psychologist in private practice (who is fairly well read in psychoanalytic theory) I found the book helpful both in terms of its comparisons of other models and its original contributions, especially the concepts of the buried authentic self, of the analyst's vision of what the patient can become, and the idea that focusing on these can help narcissistic patients tolerate defense interpretations with less injury. The descriptions of work with more severely disturbed, difficult or fragile patients were also particularly impressive and useful. I occasionally disagreed with some of the author's characterizations of the other models he compares, especially self psychology, but found this a minor factor in light of the strengths of the book. Overall it has helped me in my work with patients.

Absolutely NO amount of writing can describe the extent of professionalism and dead-on accuracy Summers possesses in his marvelous work of groundbreaking pshycological analysis. A++++++++.

This exceedingly readable book outlines the author's view of the application of object relations theory to clinical practice. There are many books that present discussion of object relations; Dr. Summers book presents a viewpoint that arises from, but is not limited by, the views of earlier theorists. Specifically, other analysts view the needs of the self as necessarily opposed to the "needs that draw toward others." Dr. Summers asserts that these two sets of needs can be "mutually necessary and enhancing," an optimistic and ultimately constructive view of the human mind. This view recognizes human development as a process of learning that conflict between one's own needs and those of the significant people in one's life is not necessary, rather than seeing conflict as inevitable. Carried far enough, it has implications for peace between peoples...

In a tiresome rehash of most of the ideas of his previous book, Summers tries to present his version of psychoanalytic psychotherapy from an object relations perspective. Unfortunately, he misses the mark on several counts. First, there is very little original thinking in this text. As with his prior book, what we get is a synthetic rehash of other's ideas. Nothing new is added that is creative, incisive or evocative. Second, he fails entirely to cover any of the empirical literature on psychodynamic psychotherapy, which is more critical and skeptical, and ultimately helpful. He fails to cover Hans Strupp's work, he completely passes over the work of the Mt. Zion group on process research (e.g. Sampson , et al) and he fails in general as a clinical psychologist to advance the notion that close research into the process/outcome dimensions of psychodynamic psychotherapy is needed. Otherwise, what you will continue to get are more books like Summers', where the author simply regurgitates old theorist's ideas, or speaks from their own slanted clinical experience, then generalizes to all patients and psychopathology! (Although in Summer's defense, Freud did the same, but this was 100 years ago without the benefit of the research, history, and tools that Summers would have available. Of course, Freud also had an infinitely richer grasp of history, culture, etc., which would make his generalizations more compelling).