Stance, Set, Transference: The Differentiation of Two Modes of Clinical Technique.

Comparative approaches to psychoanalytic theory are a major source of exposure to different theoretical orientations and clinical technique. However, it is not always clear what the analyst when translating theory into practice. As an attempt at clarification, descriptions are provided of two listening stances or attentional sets that are associated with different modes of analytic listening.

Maternal Erotic Transferences and the Work of the Abject.

Kristeva's profound and comprehensive understanding of maternal eroticism allows us to examine the ways in which a negative maternal transference, structured through the work of the abject, can be viewed as a maternal erotic transference in its vitalizing form. Through the use of a clinical case, the vitalizing experiences of maternal eroticism within analytic process facilitate the emergence of a maternal erotic transference in its vitalizing form. The lack of erotic dimensions in maternal transferences, it is argued, may be viewed as , and the development of a positive maternal erotic transference as an .

The threat of male-to-female erotic transference.

Vignettes from an ongoing psychoanalysis with a patient, Michael, are presented to illustrate the various dimensions of the erotic transference at different phases of the treatment. The relation to power, the experience and expression of aggression, how these may be organized by gender, and the female analyst's countertransference are discussed as potentially fostering or inhibitory in the development of an erotic transference. Traditional sociocultural gender stereotypes kept alive in fantasy can cause female analysts to subtly foreclose the impending threat of an intense erotic transference with male analysands due to a fear of outwardly directed male aggression.

Vis-a-vis the couch: where is psychoanalysis?

The author discusses ways in which the couch or chair (lying down versus sitting up) may be used to maintain safety and defend against perceived dangers in the analytic process. Several dialectics are relevant as they intersect with that of danger and safety, including engagement/privacy, interiority/exteriority and subject/object. The author discusses these dialectics in terms of the ways in which the analyst is used at different points in time, i.

Analysts who commit sexual boundary violations: a lost cause?

The causes of sexual misconduct by analysts are discussed, as is the viability of rehabilitation for different types of transgressors. Common misunderstandings about the transgressor (such as the assumption of psychopathy and the likelihood of multiple offenses) are countered with a summary of data derived from the evaluation and/or treatment of over two hundred cases, most of them one-time transgressors. The typical characteristics of the analyst or therapist who engages in sexual misconduct are presented and discussed as qualities that are to some extent present in analysts generally.