In Psychoanalytic Participation: Action, Interaction, and Integration, Kenneth Frank argues that the gulf between analysis and what he terms action-oriented or cognitive-behavioural techniques is anachronistic and has unnecessarily limited the repertoire of analytically oriented clinicians. Frank clarifies and extends the shift toward analyst participation that has developed within recent relational theorising, advocating for a pragmatic analytic approach that balances traditional process elements with patients' problem-solving. By participating intensively and actively in their treatment, analysts can help patients shape new and adaptive behaviours in their daily lives.
Key Features
- Explores the integration of action-oriented techniques within psychoanalysis.
- Emphasises the therapeutic importance of the analyst's real qualities.
- Provides numerous examples of how cognitive-behavioural principles can enhance the analytic process.
- Aims to bridge the gap between psychoanalysis and cognitive-behaviour therapy.
- Offers a contemporary perspective on psychoanalytic practice for the 21st century.
Additional Information
In point of fact, action-oriented and even cognitive-behavioural techniques may be employed in ways that are consistent with the analytic goal of promoting profound personality change, and so may be profitably incorporated into analytic treatments. Frank sets forth a pragmatic analytic approach that balances traditional "process" elements with patients' problem-solving and outside progress in realising life goals. It is the participatory possibilities growing out of a contemporary relational perspective that provide the ground for a rapprochement between psychoanalysis and cognitive-behaviour therapy. At once scholarly and exploratory, pragmatic and visionary, Psychoanalytic Participation helps shepherd psychoanalysis into the 21st century while making psychoanalytic wisdom - both traditional and contemporary - available to the broad community of psychotherapists appreciative of the usefulness of cognitive-behaviour.
