CL 521 DL
Clinical Process and Technique
I:
The Therapeutic Attitude
Spring, 2008
Jennifer Tolleson, Ph.D., L.C.S.W.
312/409-2851
Jentolleson@mindspring.com
1 E. Superior #202, Chicago, IL 60611
I am rarely at the Institute; please do not leave
messages for me there.
Course Objectives
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To address the psychotherapist’s motivations, assumptions,
personal characteristics, and attitudes as these inform both the clinical
dialogue and the quality of the therapeutic relationship.
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To explore, using clinical theory in combination with
personal and therapeutic experience, the fundamentals of clinical listening
and understanding, as well as what is personally required by the psychotherapist
for facilitating an optimal therapeutic process.
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To deepen the student’s reflectivity and self-awareness
within the therapeutic interaction.
Required Texts
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Bollas, Christopher (1987). The shadow
of the object. New York: Columbia University Press.
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Casement, Patrick (1985). Learning
from the patient. Guilford Press.
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Reik, Theodore. (1948). Listening with
the third ear. Noonday Press.
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Symington, Neville (1996). The making
of a psychotherapist. International Universities Press.
Course Requirements
All readings are required. Students must
come to class prepared to reflect upon and integrate the readings into
the classroom discussion.
One essay (10-12 pages), due the last day of class,
will be assigned. In the first part of the essay, students are asked
to consider one of the therapeutic attitudes discussed in class (freedom,
curiosity, reverie, empathy, courage, etc.) from a strictly personal perspective.
In other words, what is the value you attach to the idea in human experience
and interaction? What does it mean to you personally? In the
second section of the essay, students are asked to explore their difficulties
maintaining this attitude in the clinical situation. What impediments/anxieties
interfere with your ability to be free, curious, imaginative, courageous,
empathic, etc., in your work with patients? Please include a case
example that demonstrates a clinical impasse that you believe was attributable
to a retreat (on your part) from holding this attitude. What do you
wish you would have done or said (or not done/said), and why do you think
you refrained from doing so at the time?
The essay will be evaluated on quality of writing,
complexity and independence of thought, and ability to express ideas authentically
and honestly. Plagiarism of any kind will not be tolerated, and ideas
belonging to others (including the internet) must be cited using APA guidelines.
Overall class grades will be based on the following: Quality of class
participation: 25%, Essay: 75%.
The course is taught in a lecture/discussion format.
Therefore, class attendance is required. For students who miss more
than one class session (excepting a personal emergency), the overall course
grade will be lowered one level for each missed session. Students
who miss more than three class sessions will automatically fail the course
(in cases of personal emergency, the student will be asked to withdraw
from the course and retake it the following year).
Except in cases of extreme personal emergency (requiring
permission from the instructor before the last class day), there will be
no ‘Incompletes’ given for the class. Assignments turned in late
will not be accepted.
Course Outline
Class 1 (on-site): What is Psychotherapy?
Casement, Patrick (1985). Learning
from the patient. Guilford Press.
Symington, Neville (1996). Introduction
(pp. xiii-xvii); The traditions and practices of psychotherapy (pp. 3-10);
The psychotherapist’s education (pp. 11-22); and The analyst’s inner task
(pp. 23-34). In The making of a psychotherapist.
International Universities Press.
Class 2: The Therapist in the Clinical
Process I
Reik, Theodore. (1948). Part I:
I am a stranger here myself. In Listening with the third ear,
(pp. 3-104 ). Noonday Press.
Symington, Neville (1996). Self-esteem
in analyst and patient. In The making of a psychotherapist,
(pp. 61-73).
Class 3: The Therapist in the Clinical
Process II
Maroda, Karen. (1999). On
seduction, intellectualization, and the bad mother. In Seduction,
surrender, and transformation, (pp. 11-47). Analytic Press.
Maroda, Karen. (1999). Reflections
on the analyst’s legitimate power and the existence of reality.
In Seduction, surrender, and transformation, (pp. 161-180).
The Analytic Press, Inc.
Class 4: Being an Object: Understanding
the Patient’s Experience of the Therapist I
Freud, Sigmund. (1912). The
dynamics of the transference. In Therapy and technique.
Collier Books, 1963.
Symington, Neville (1996). Transference.
In The making of a psychotherapist, (pp. 74-95). International
Universities Press.
Class 5: Being an Object: Understanding
the Patient’s Experience of the Therapist II
Phillips, Adam (1993). Playing
mothers: Between pedagogy and transference. In On kissing,
tickling, and being bored: Psychoanalytic essays on the unexamined
life, (pp. 101-108). Harvard University Press.
Class 6: Being a Subject: Freedom,
Courage, and Authenticity I
Symington, Neville (1983). The analyst’s
act of freedom as an agent of therapeutic change. International
Review of Psycho-Analysis, 10, pp. 283-291. PEP Archive
Symington, Neville (1996). Mental pain
and moral courage. In The making of a psychotherapist, (pp.
50-60). International Universities Press.
Class 7: Being a Subject: Freedom,
Courage, and Authenticity II
Bollas, Christopher. (1999). The
necessary destructions of psychoanalysis. In The mystery of
things, (pp. 27-34). Routledge.
Reik, Theodore. (1948). The shock of
thought and The courage not to understand. In Listening with the
third ear, (pp. 491-512). Noonday Press.
Class 8 (on-site): How the Therapist
Listens: Curiosity, Faith, and Reverie
Bion, W.R. (1967). Notes
on memory and desire. Psychoanalytic Forum, 2, pp. 271-280.
Bollas, Christopher. (1999). The
mystery of things. In The mystery of things, (pp. 181-193).
Routledge.
Bollas, C. (1992). The
psychoanalyst’s use of free association. In Being a character:
Psychoanalysis and self experience, (pp. 101-133). Hill and Wang.
Ogden, Thomas. (1997). Reverie
and interpretation. In Reverie and interpretation: Sensing
something human, (pp. 157-197). Jason Aronson Inc.
Symington, Neville (1996). Imagination
and curiosity of mind. In The making of a psychotherapist,
(pp. 35-49).
Class 9: What the Therapist Listens
To: Forms of Communication, Receptivity, and Clinical Data I
Bollas, Christopher. (1987). Self
analysis and the countertransference. In The shadow of the object:
Psychoanalysis of the unthought known (pp. 236-255). New York:
Columbia University Press.
Bollas, Christopher. (1995). Communications
of the unconscious, and A separate sense. In Cracking up:
The work of unconscious experience, (pp. 8-47). Hill and Wang.
Class 10: What the Therapist Listens
To: Forms of Communication, Receptivity, and Clinical Data II
McDougall, Joyce. (1978). Primitive
communication and the use of countertransference. Contemporary
Psychoanalysis, 14 (2). PEP Archive
Ogden, Thomas. (1979). On projective
identification. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 60,
pp. 357-373. PEP Archive
Class 11: Why the Therapist Listens:
The Centrality of Phantasy, Meaning, and Psychic Reality in the Empathic
Process I
Ogden, Thomas. (1986). Dream
space and analytic space. In The matrix of the mind (pp.
233-245). Jason Aronson, Inc.
Schwaber, Evelyn. (1983). Psychoanalytic
listening and psychic reality. International Review of Psycho-Analysis,
10, pp. 379-393. PEP Archive
Class 12: Why the Therapist Listens:
The Centrality of Phantasy, Meaning, and Psychic Reality in the Empathic
Process II
Parsons, M. (1999). Psychic
reality, negation, and the analytic setting. In G. Kohon, Ed.,
The dead mother: The work of Andre Green, (pp. 59-75).
Routledge.
Symington, N. (1985). Phantasy effects
that which it represents. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis,
66, pp. 349-357. PEP Archive
Class 13: Beginning the Treatment
I
Freud, S. (1913 ). On
beginning the treatment: Further recommendations on the technique
of psycho-analysis. The standard edition, XII, pp.
123-144. PEP Archive
Ogden, T. (1989). The
initial analytic meeting. In The primitive edge of experience,
(pp. 169-194). Jason Aronson, Inc.
Class 14: Beginning the Treatment
II
Langs, Robert. (1975). The therapeutic
relationship and deviations in technique. International Journal
of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 4, pp. 106-141. PEP Archive
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