Learning from Our Mistakes: Beyond Dogma in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy

by Patrick Casement, Patrick J. Casement

This book focuses on the issue of mistakes in psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy--the inevitability of making them, as far as possible how to avoid them, and what therapists can do to transform potential disasters into a means for growth in themselves as well as the patient. Further developing the creative therapeutic approach first elaborated in his classic Learning from the Patient , distinguished clinician and author Patrick Casement makes a compelling case for being open-minded rather than dogmatic in clinical practice. He shows how analysts can become blind to their own mistakes, and even more significantly, can fail to recognize when their efforts to guide or control the therapeutic process have become a problem for the patient. A wealth of evocative case material is used to illustrate how the process of internal supervision can facilitate heightened awareness of the patient's experience within the clinical encounter. Written with rare candor, this book challenges many traditional assumptions even as it affirms the healing power of psychodynamic work. It will be read with pleasure by practicing therapists as well as students and trainees.

Winner--Gradiva Award, National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis

Genres: Psychology

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Dovilė Stonė · Rating 4 out of 5]

[...]it is strange how precisely we can fail some patients, in ways that really do seem to be ‘determined by’ their history, as Winnicott describes.

If an interpretation leaves no room for the patient, except to agree or disagree, the patient has no space for his/her own thinking.

[...]our problem is usually not so much that of knowing that we do not know; rather it is often the illusion of knowing when we do not.

Though careful not to fall into the more typical forms of transference or projection, analysts can nevertheless develop a false sense of confidence in their theoretical framework and in the broad applicability of their clinical experience. Of course, in any analysis, there is an essential place for theory and for clinical experience, but for some analysts (and I count myself among them) that remains secondary to the task of trying to get to understand the individual. I therefore hope not to allow myself to be pushed into seeing a patient in any particular way just because theory (or someone else) suggests that I should. Each patient is essentially unique. The individual will therefore still remain something of a mystery, however well we may eventually come to know him/her. Therefore, even though theory has a vital place in serving the work of analysis I continue to hope we will not be governed by it too often.

[Jonah Swenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful book and insightful into the practices of psychoanalysis. I believe any clinician would benefit from reading these rich case examples. The ending of this book opened my eyes to the ways we may take our clients for granted, and the necessity of challenging the engrained pattern of categorical thinking. One must never lost sight of curiosity within the consultation room.