AI Article Synopsis
- The couch has been really important in psychoanalysis since the days of Freud, but no real studies have looked at how it affects therapy outcomes.
- The article suggests different ways researchers could study the impact of the couch in therapy sessions.
- It shares some early findings from recordings of two therapy sessions where patients changed between lying down and sitting up, hoping to inspire more research on this topic.
Article Abstract
Ever since Freud, the couch has been viewed as an important--some would argue essential--component of psychoanalysis. Although many theoretical papers and case reports have addressed the use of the couch in psychoanalysis, no empirical study has investigated its effect on psychoanalytic process or outcome. After a review of the literature, a number of research designs are proposed that might be used in such an investigation. Finally, preliminary empirical data are presented from archived audiotapes of two psychoanalyses: one in which the patient switched from lying down to sitting up, and one in which the opposite occurred. The aim is to stimulate research-oriented psychoanalysts to undertake empirical investigations of the theoretical concepts underlying use of the couch and, more generally, to present a specific example of research as a paradigm for a broader research agenda for empirical investigation of the key theoretical ideas underlying psychoanalysis.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0003065110390210 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
In a time of theoretical expansion and change, don't throw babies out with the bath water.
Int J Psychoanal
June 2024
British Psychoanalytical Society, London, UK.
Various challenges faced by the psychoanalyst when moving from "on the couch" work to "off the couch" work are raised and discussed. It is argued that the biggest challenges concern methodology: what now constitutes the analytic setting and field, and what counts as analytic data? The author describes some of the methodological challenges she has faced so far in studying climate change denial at individual, group, cultural and political levels. She raises potential pitfalls with "off the couch" work, that include overgeneralisations and assuming one can directly apply insights gained "on the couch" to wider contexts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArtificial Intelligence on The Couch. Staying Human Post-AI.
Am J Psychoanal
June 2024
, 10 Grace Avenue, Suite #7, Great Neck, NY, 11021, USA.
This paper examines the human relationship to technology, and AI in particular, including the proposition that algorithms are the new unconscious. Key is the question of how much human ability will be duplicated and transcended by general machine intelligence. More and more people are seeking connection via social media and interaction with artificial beings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Musical Semiotics of Voice in Distance: Some Reflections on the Question of Teleanalysis.
Psychoanal Rev
December 2023
252 Waban Ave., Waban, MA 02468 E-mail:
Within the context of the debate over teleanalysis, I wish to reintroduce the discussion of voice as the primary link between analyst and patient, a link present in analysis on the phone. Far from questioning the importance of the in-person analysis, I aim to emphasize the voice, the musical semiotics of emotions, as a critical, if not the most vital, aspect of psychoanalysis as a "talking cure" and an art of listening. Insofar as the speaking is instituted in the body, the body is present through voice, even in the virtual analytic room in teleanalysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe intolerance of controversy in psychoanalytic organizations.
Int J Psychoanal
October 2023
The William Alanson White Institute, New York City, USA.
In an age when our survival as a profession is less threatened but our growth increasingly depends upon our ability to apply our theories and techniques away from the couch, it has become important to understand how our organizational life relies on competing roles and different demands. That can be confusing for those of us who understand conflict primarily in the dyadic relationships of traditional psychoanalysis. Roles and collaboration, essential to work in organizations, require a greater acceptance of differences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding psychoanalytic work online and back to the couch in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic: an investigation among Italian psychoanalysts.
Front Psychol
June 2023
Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
Background: Worldwide, psychotherapists' clinical experience went through rapid developments with transition to teletherapy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Literature on the use of remote psychoanalysis was not conclusive, leaving the issue of the consequences of the necessary setting alternation open. This study aimed to investigate the psychoanalysts' experiences of shifting to remote work and then returning to in-person setting, considering the effect of the patients' attachment styles and personality configurations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!