In Building Bridges, Stuart A. Pizer gives much-needed recognition to the central role of negotiation in the analytic relationship and in the therapeutic process. Building on a Winnicottian perspective that comprehends paradox as the condition for preserving an intrapsychic and relational potential space, Pizer explores how the straddling of paradox requires an ongoing process of negotiation. Together, he observes, analyst and patient negotiate the boundaries, potentials, limits, tonalities, resistances, and meanings that determine the course of their clinical dialogue.
Key Features
- Explores the role of negotiation in the analytic relationship.
- Builds on a Winnicottian perspective of paradox and potential space.
- Includes clinical vignettes and a detailed chronicle of an analytic case.
- Broadens the scope by examining negotiation theory in various disciplines.
- Addresses the impact of trauma and dissociation on negotiating paradox.
Additional Information
Pizer elaborates on the theme of a multiply constituted, distributed self, presenting a model for the tolerance of paradox as a developmental achievement related to ways in which caretakers function as transitional mirrors. He clarifies how negotiation of paradox differs from negotiation of conflict. Enlivened by numerous clinical vignettes, Building Bridges adds a significant dimension to theoretical understanding and clinical practice. It is altogether a psychoanalytic work of our time.
