What is This Thing Called Love? provides a clear how-to guide on the art of psychotherapy with couples from a psychoanalytic perspective. The book draws on both early and contemporary psychoanalytic knowledge, explaining how each theory described is useful in formulating couple dynamics and in working with them. The result is an extremely practical approach, with detailed step-by-step instructions on technique, illuminated throughout by vivid case studies. The book focuses on several key areas including: * An initial discussion about theories of love.
* Progression of therapy from beginning to termination.
* Transference and countertransference and their unique manifestations in couple therapy.
* Comparisons between couples therapy and individual therapy.
* Step-by-step instruction on technique. What is This Thing Called Love? is enlivened with humour and humanness. It is crucial reading for psychoanalytic therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, couples therapists and students who want to learn about -- or augment their skills in -- this challenging modality. Critical Acclaim: This book is an important contribution that will help these clinicians develop the skills necessary to work with troubled marriages. Numerous clinical case presentations bring this work to life, clearly illustrating each phase of treatment. -- Lewis Aron, Ph.D., Director, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis The book is filled with rich clinical material and written with great lucidity. Sarah Usher offers to the reader her clinical wisdom distilled after many years of experience, and what is offered is considerable and valuable. The important insights contained in this book will benefit all therapists, including those working with individual patients as well as couples. -- Morris Eagle, Professor Emeritus, Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University Contents: Introduction. The Psychoanalytic Perspective. Getting Started: The First Three Sessions. Interlude: On Love. The Ongoing Therapy: Technique. Transference. Countertransference. Denouement: Working Through and Termination. References. About the Author: Sarah Fels Usher is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Toronto. She is the President of the Toronto Psychoanalytic Society, founding director of the Fundamental Psychoanalytic Perspectives Program, and a faculty member of the Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis. Her first book, Introduction to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Techniques , is a psychotherapy guide for students and beginning therapists. Dr. Usher is also Book Editor of the Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis. | 
