Infant Research and Adult Treatment: Co-constructing Interactions - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0881632457 ISBN 13: 9780881632453

Publisher: Routledge, 2002

Synopsis

The first synoptic rendering of Beebe's and Lachmann's impressive body of work, Infant Research and Adult Treatment presents an up-to-date overview of infant competencies, and examination of the presymbolic representations to which these competencies give rise from a systems view of interaction, and an application of these findings to the dialogic context of the psychoanalytic situation. In detailed descriptions of clinical work with long-term patients, Beebe and Lachmann demonstrate how participation in the dyadic interaction reorganizes intrapsychic and relational processes in analyst and patient alike, and in ways both consonant with, and different from, what is observed in adult-infant interactions.

About this title

Review

“This ground-breaking book is one of the most creative and valuable contributions to psychoanalysis to appear in the last decade.  Applying the fascinating discoveries of infant-mother observational research to the treatment of adult patients, Beebe and Lachmann open up new ways of understanding and working with the myriad communications between patient and analyst that form the core of the analytic process.  An educational experience in itself, this book should be required reading for anyone working in the mental health field today.”

- Theodore J. Jacobs, Ph.D., New York and NYU Psychoanalytic Institutes

“This extraordinary book is a critical landmark in the psychoanalytic literature.  The culmination of decades of dialogue between the coauthors, Infant Research and Adult Treatment provides rich new metaphors, scenarios, and narratives for practitioners.  Beebe and Lachmann lay out a sophisticated paradigm of the origins of relatedness and a complex systems view of mind as organized in interaction.  Disposing definitively of any residual sense that clinical psychoanalysis and infant research cannot fully address, and benefit from, the insights of the other, they bring the conversation between these disparate disciplines to an exciting and creative new level.”

- Lewis Aron, Ph.D., Director, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

“Infant Research and Adult Treatment contributes greatly to our understanding of how infants interact with their caretakers.  In addition, the authors ambitiously invite us to rethink some of our assumptions about what it is we do with our patients that leads to change.  It seems to me they succeed admirably. . . . their effort must be applauded and their book should be enjoyed and appreciated for all it has to teach us.” 

- Ruth R. Imber, JAPA 

Synopsis

This is the first synoptic rendering of Beebe's and Lachmann's body of work. Therapists unfamiliar with current research findings will find here a comprehensive overview of infant competencies. These competencies, as the authors demonstrate, give rise to pre-symbolic representations that are best understood from the standpoint of a systems view of interaction. It is through this conceptual window that the underpinnings of the psychoanalytic situation, especially the ways in which both patient and therapist find and use strategies for preserving and transforming self-organization in a dialogic context, emerge with new clarity. Beebe and Lachmann not only show how their understanding of treatment has evolved, but illustrate this process through detailed descriptions of clinical work with long-term patients. Throughout, they demonstrate how participation in the dyadic interaction reorganizes intrapsychic and relational processes in analyst and patient alike, and in ways both consonant with, and different from, what is observed in adult-infant interactions.

Of special note is their creative formulation of the principles of ongoing regulation; disruption and repair; and heightened affective moments. Written by psychoanalytic practitioners for psychoanalytic practitioners, this book provides a bridge from the phenomenology of self psychological, relational and intersubjective approaches to a systems theoretical understanding that is consistent with recent developments in psychoanalytic therapy and amenable to further clinical investigation.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0881632457
• ISBN 13: 9780881632453
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Beebe Beatrice, Lachmann Frank M.