Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy        IMPASSES IN TREATMENT           Reading List

COURSE OUTLINE AND GOALS: Starting with the classical form of the negative therapeutic reaction, this course will describe typical forms of impasses that develop in psychotherapy treatments, and techniques for handling them. It should be a clinically oriented course with the students being encouraged to bring examples from their own psychotherapy practices.

Seminar 1- The Negative Therapeutic Reaction

Required Reading

1. Freud, S. (1923) The ego and the id: V. The dependent relationships of the ego (excerpt). Standard Edition 19: 49-50.

2. Freud, S. (1924) The economic problem of masochism (excerpt). Standard Edition 19: 165-170.

3. Olinick, Stanley L. (1964) The negative therapeutic reaction. Int. J. Psycho-Anal. 45: 540-548.   

Supplementary Reading:

1. Asch, Stuart S. (1976) Varieties of negative therapeutic reaction and problems of technique. J.A.P.A. 24: 383-407.

2. Freud, S. (1916) Some character-types met with in psychoanalytic work: II. Those wrecked by success. Standard Edition 14: 316-331.

3. Loewald, Hans W. (1972) Freud's conception of the negative therapeutic reaction, with comments on instinct theory. J.A.P.A. 20: 235-245.

4. Novick, Jack (1980) Negative therapeutic motivation and negative therapeutic alliance. Psychoanal. St. Child 35: 299-320.

5. Olinick, Stanley (1970) Panel report: Negative therapeutic reaction. J.A.P.A. 18: 655-672. 6. Riviere, Joan (1936) A contribution to the analysis of the negative therapeutic reaction. Int. J. Psycho-Anal. 17: 304-320.   

Seminar 2 - Symptoms as Resistances Leading to Impasses

Required Reading:

1. Horowitz, Milton H. (1987) Some notes on insight and its failures. Psychoanal. Quart. 56: 177-196.   

Supplementary Reading:

1. Abend, Sander M. (1979) Unconscious fantasy and theories of cure. J.A.P.A. 27: 579-596. 2. Arlow, Jacob A. (1981) Theories of pathogenesis. Psychoanal. Quart. 50: 488-514.

3. Joseph, Betty (1982) Addiction to near-death. Int. J. Psycho-Anal. 63: 449-456.

4. Stein, Martin H. (1958) The cliché: a phenomenon of resistance. J.A.P.A. 6: 263-277.

5. Valenstein, Arthur F. (1973) On attachment to painful feelings and the negative therapeutic reaction. Psychoanal. St. Child 28: 365-392.

6. Weinberger, Jerome L. (1964) A triad of silence: silence, masochism and depression. Int. J. Psycho-Anal. 45: 304-309.  

Seminar 3 - Character as Resistance Leading to Impasses

Required Reading:

1. Levy, Steven T. and Lawrence B. Inderbitzin (1989) Negativism and countertransference. J.A.P.A. 37: 7-30.

Supplementary Reading:

1. Asch, S. (1988) The analytic concepts of masochism: a reevaluation, in Masochism: Current Psychoanalytic Perspectives, edited by R. Glick and D. Meyers. The Analytic Press, Hillsdale, NJ, 93-115.

2. Brenner, C. (1959) The masochistic character: genesis and treatment. J. A. P. A. 7: 197-226.

3. Coen, Stanley J. (1999) Perverse defenses in neurotic patients. J.A.P.A. 46: 1169-1194.

4. Freud, S. (1919) 'A child is being beaten': a contribution to the study of the origin of sexual perversions. S.E. 17: 177-204.

5. Freud, S. (1924) The economic problem of masochism. S.E.19: 157-170.

6. MacGregor, John R. (1991) Identification with the victim. Psychoanal. Quart. 60: 53-68.

7. Menaker, Esther (1960) The self-image as defense and resistance. Psychoanal. Quart. 29: 72-81.

8. Novick, K.K. and J. Novick, (1987) The essence of masochism. Psychoanal. St. Child 42: 353-384.

9. Renik, Owen (1992) Use of the analyst as a fetish. Psychoanal. Quart. 61: 542-563.

10. Rosenfeld, Herbert A. (1988) On masochism: a theoretical and clinical approach, in Masochism: Current Psychoanalytic Perspectives. Edited by Robert A. Glick and Donald I. Meyers. The Analytic Press, Hillsdale, N.J., Hove and London. 151-174.

11. Stein, Martin H. (1981) The unobjectionable part of the transference. J.A.P.A. 29: 869-892. 

Further Readings

1. Abend, Sander M. (1975) An analogue of negation. Psychoanal. Quart. 44: 631-637.

2. Kris, Anton (1985) Resistance in convergent and divergent conflicts. Psychoanal. Quart. 54: 537-568.

3. Parkin, Alan (1980) On masochistic enthrallment: a contribution to the study of moral masochism. Int. J. Psycho-Anal. 61: 307-314.

4. Renik, Owen (1991) One kind of negative therapeutic reaction. J.A.P.A. 39: 87-105.

5. Seinfeld, Jeffrey (1990) The Bad Object. Handling the Negative Therapeutic Reaction in Psychotherapy. Jason Aronson, Inc. Reviewed by Kenneth D. Cohen (1993) Psychoanal. Quart. 62:501-503.

6. Sterba, Richard F. (1957) Oral invasion and self-defense. Int. J. Psycho-Anal. 38: 204-208. 7. Wallerstein, Robert S. and Stanley J. Coen (1994) Impasses in psychoanalysis. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn. 42: 1225-1235.

8. Weinshel, Edward M. (1977) “I didn’t mean it” - Negation as a character trait. Psychoanal. St. Child 32: 387-419.