A new generation of dynamic therapists is taking a fresh look at what actually heals the patient. In contrast to the classical vision, whose essential feature is intervention by interpretation in an ambience of optimal frustration, Bacal's conception of optimal responsiveness legitimizes a whole repertoire of professional behaviors - empathic attunement, confrontation, support, self-disclosure, validation or invalidation. Ferenczi, Alexander, Balint, Winnicott, and more recently Kohut anticipated aspects of the idea, which Bacal and his colleagues - informed by emerging understanding in self psychology and intersubjective relational perspectivesarticulate, elucidate, and apply as a comprehensive indicator of therapeutic efficacy. -- from the book jacket Table of Contents: Part I: Reconceptualizing the Therapist's Job
1. Optimal Responsiveness and the Therapeutic Process Howard A. Bacal
2. Optimal Responsiveness and Neutrality, Abstinence, and Anonymity Walter Ricci and Francis Broucek
3. Optimal Responsiveness and a New View of Structuralization David M. Terman
4. Optimal Responsiveness and a Search for Guidelines Morton Shane and Estelle Shane
5. Optimal Responsiveness from Abstinence to Usability Kenneth M. Newman
6. Optimal Responsiveness and Listening/Experiencing Perspectives
James L. Fosshage
7. Optimal Responsiveness and the Specificity of Selfobject Experience Howard A. Bacal Part II: Optimal Responsiveness in Clinical Practice
A. New Modes of Relating
8. Optimal Responsiveness and the Experience of Sharing Bruce Herzog
10. Optimal Responsiveness and Subject-Subject Relating Lynne Jacobs
11. Optimal Responsiveness and Enactments Susan G. Lazar B. The Management of Disruptions and Countertransference
11. Optimal Responsiveness and Disruption-Restorations
12. Optimal Responsiveness and the Therapist's Reaction to the Patient's Unresponsiveness Howard A. Bacal and Peter G. Thomson C. New Perspectives on Empathy in Clinical Work
13. Optimal Responsiveness and a Systems View of the Empathic Process Maxwell S. Sucharov
14. Is Empathic Attunement the Only Optimal Response? Howard A. Bacal D. Developmental Considerations
15. Optimal Responsiveness in a Systems Approach to Representational and Selfobject Transferences Frank M. Lachmann and Beatrice Beebe Part III: Research and Training
16. Optimal Responsiveness and the Subjective and Intersubjective Experiences of Psychotherapists Carmely Estrella
17. Optimal Responsiveness and Psychoanalytic Supervision Alan R. Kindler
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