Modes of therapeutic action : enhancement of knowledge, provision of experience, and engagement in relationship / Martha Stark.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stark, Martha.

Contributor:

Classes of 1883 and 1884 Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Psychotherapist and patient.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 384 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Northvale, N.J. : Jason Aronson, 1999.

Summary:

Stark proposes that the repertoire of the contemporary therapist includes formulating interpretations, offering some form of corrective provision, and engaging interactively in a relationship that is reciprocally mutual. She argues that the most therapeutically effective stance is one in which the therapist is able to achieve an optimal balance between (1) positioning herself outside the therapeutic field (in order to formulate interpretations about the patient and her internal process so as to resolve the patient's structural conflict), (2) decentering, from her own experience (in order to offer the patient some form of corrective provision so as to fill in the patient's structural deficit), and (3) remaining very much centered-within her own experience (in order to engage authentically with the patient in a real relationship so as to resolve the patient's relational difficulties). The most effective therapists are those who (1) manage somehow to tolerate -- perhaps, even, for extended periods of time -- the experience of not knowing; (2) are open to being shaped by the patient's need and by whatever else might arise within the context of their intersubjective relationship; and, more generally, (3) are willing to bring the best of themselves, the worst of themselves, and the most of themselves into the room with the patient -- so that each will have an opportunity to find the other.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [367]-374) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Classes of 1883 and 1884 Fund.

ISBN:

0765702029

OCLC:

40473836