Self and Motivational Systems: Towards A Theory of Psychoanalytic Technique (Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series) - Hardcover

From the Back Cover

In Psychoanalysis and Motivation (The Analytic Press, 1989), Joseph Lichtenberg redefined psychoanalysis as a theory of structured motivation consisting of five discrete systems that promote the fulfillment and regulation of basic needs. Now, in Self and Motivational Systems: Toward a Theory of Psychoanalytic Technique, Lichtenberg and coauthors Frank Lachmann and James Fosshage show how this revised theory of motivation provides the foundation for a new approach to psychoanalytic technique. This approach emphasizes a finely honed sensitivity to moment-to-moment analytic exchanges and an appreciation of which motivational system is dominant during that exchange. Throughout, the authors stress the creative power of psychoanalysis as a joint effort shaped by the intersubjective context of a particular analysand communicating and interacting with a particular analyst. At the heart of the analytic relationship is the analysand's expectation of evoking a vitalizing selfobject experience from the analyst and the analyst's expectation, in turn, of evoking a selfobject experience of efficacy from his or her work with the analysand. Self and Motivational Systems offers a powerful, empirically informed alternative to the theory of classical psychoanalytic technique. For Lichtenberg, Lachmann, and Fosshage, psychoanalytic technique is first and foremost a response to the analysand's lived experience over the course of an analysis. It follows that unconscious mentation, conflict, deficits, defense, interpretation, values, and morality gain expression in the clinical exchange; they are not remote metapsychological constructs. Based on these fundamental reconceptualizations, the authors outline atheory of technique that is both conceptually rigorous and clinically flexible. Among their accomplishments is a broadened understanding of the technical use of empathic perception, with specific emphasis given to an exploration of affects to apprehend the analysand's motivational goals and degree of self-cohesion. They also detail the need to supplement intrapsychic and intersubjective perspectives with an assessment of the analysand's "state", or mind set. Out of these refinements of the analyst's empathic-introspective stance emerges a technique in which analytic interventions occur within an ambiance of shared inquiry and joy of discovery. A pivotal contribution to contemporary psychoanalysis, Self and Motivational Systems speaks to self-reflective clinicians in search of conceptual anchorage freed from dogmas of the past.

About the Author

Joseph D. Lichtenberg, M.D., is Editor-in-Chief of Psychoanaytic Inquiry, Director Emeritus of the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, and past President of the International Council for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology.  He has authored and edited numerous books and articles, including Craft and Spirit: A Guide to the Exploratory Psychotherapies (Analytic Press, 2005) and, with Frank Lachmann and James Fosshage,  A Sprit of Inquiry: Communication in Psychoanalysis (Analytic Press, 2002).

Frank M. Lachmann, Ph.D., is a founding faculty member of the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, Training and Supervising Analyst, Postgraduate Center for Mental Health, and Clinical Assistant Professor at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. He has contributed over 100 articles to the journal literature, and is author of Transforming Aggression (Aronson, 2000), and co-author of Self and Motivational Systems (Analytic Press, 1992), The Clinical Exchange (Analytic Press, 1996), and Infant Research and Adult Treatment (Analytic Press, 2002).

James L. Fosshage, Ph.D., is Cofounder, Board Director, and faculty member, National Institute for the Psychotherapies, NYC; founding faculty member, Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, NYC; and Clinical Professor of Psychology, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.