Thank you, thank you, thank you, I've been searching for an introduction to understand transference and you did it, thank you so much. I am a beginning therapist who really wants to some psychoanalytic training so I can do intensive short-term Dynamic treatment, eventually.
For those of you interested in the strong sense of self that Don talks about to do with surviving the death camps at 31:12 you can check Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. It’s here on UA-cam as a freebie audiobook and is one of the preeminent reads along with Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, Interpretation of Dreams by Freud and Memories, Dreams, Rrflections by Jung. Frankl, used to write to Freud as a tennager and tell him the difficulties with his theories. He was also influenced by the stoics and Nietzsche despite having his why to bear almost anyhow as not-atheist like the aforementioned proto-existential philologist. Frankl is still discussed today in conferences by keynote speakers on resilience. He openly shares his ideas on mind over matter to make it through the horrors of Auschwitz and the other places he was sent to die. He uses the great but not very well known word in this bestseller... vanquished; meaning to be defeated utterly to capture the total darkness of his subjugation while imprisoned. I recommend it to anyone struggling and feeling dismay with hopelessness in life. Man’s Search for Meaning has sold over 10 million copies since the Second World War and is a book I’ve read over and over and over. It’s very nourishing! Kind regards, Dave Brighton
Don, just wanted to say I’ve bought a shed load of books you talked about across all these talks I’ve found since discovering your videos from 2017! I now doing group therapy after doing two and a half years in psychodynamic counselling too and never felt better aged 44 with undiagnosed ADHD that I’m in the process of getting help for too. Muchos gracias scholar, Dave Brighton UK
I have to say I wonder about idea that patients who don't form transference are to be labeled narcissistic. This smacks of patient blaming. Transference feelings towards the analyst are a mild form of insanity (neurotic) so why couldn't a patient who doesn't fall in love or in hate with the analyst not simply have a firm grasp of reality? It also strikes me as narcissistic on the analyst's part to expect they are going to provoke strong affect automatically. That is even more true if the analyst employs a silent waiting stance. Why is a patient expect to form a transference to a person whom they perceive as barely there, cold or indifferent? Then for the patient to be suspected of being unanalysable because they are perceived as narcissistic is to simply add insult to injury. I feel these issues are not taken into account by analysts because they are locked into some almost absurd expectations concerning transference. Lastly it gives analysts a way out when such a patient might leave the analysis. The analyst writes off the patient as unanalysable (narcissistic) instead of seeing that the failure is baked into the cake of their silent waiting method. As Aristotle understood: from nothing comes nothing. This strategy can be whipped out for every analytic failure. The patient is at fault not the holy analyst or their method. Surely these evident reflections must have crossed someone's mind before.
I'd love to learn more about Kohut's place in Freudian theory, as followup of what you have said about this already roundabout 25 minutes and onwards in this video.
I believe I had more to say about covered in some of the earlier videos. Have a look. Not sure when I’ll get to speaking more about him but I’ll try to get to it eventually. Don’t get so enthusiastic about Cohen that you forget he is offering only one piece of a much more complex puzzle. Thanks,
I wish I can enlarge the font of my comment for you. It is freeing to hear you acknowledge that neither the whole-person nor part-object transference might occur, or at least not necessarily early on in the work. In my training for once weekly psychodynamic work, I often felt I was 'missing' the transference in my client work and I looked very hard, perhaps too hard, in order to write about transference in my essays and complete my training. Do you think for it is necessary to rethink what it means to 'work in the transference' when working short-term and seeing clients once weekly, which is common in the UK these days? However, the training organisations are very attached to the golden standard of working in the transference.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, I've been searching for an introduction to understand transference and you did it, thank you so much. I am a beginning therapist who really wants to some psychoanalytic training so I can do intensive short-term Dynamic treatment, eventually.
Don your breadth of psychoanalytic theory, and your ability to synthesise into this whole presentation is both remarkable and incredibly helpful.
Thank you very much, happy to know it’s helpful.
For those of you interested in the strong sense of self that Don talks about to do with surviving the death camps at 31:12 you can check Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. It’s here on UA-cam as a freebie audiobook and is one of the preeminent reads along with Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, Interpretation of Dreams by Freud and Memories, Dreams, Rrflections by Jung. Frankl, used to write to Freud as a tennager and tell him the difficulties with his theories. He was also influenced by the stoics and Nietzsche despite having his why to bear almost anyhow as not-atheist like the aforementioned proto-existential philologist. Frankl is still discussed today in conferences by keynote speakers on resilience. He openly shares his ideas on mind over matter to make it through the horrors of Auschwitz and the other places he was sent to die. He uses the great but not very well known word in this bestseller... vanquished; meaning to be defeated utterly to capture the total darkness of his subjugation while imprisoned. I recommend it to anyone struggling and feeling dismay with hopelessness in life. Man’s Search for Meaning has sold over 10 million copies since the Second World War and is a book I’ve read over and over and over. It’s very nourishing! Kind regards, Dave Brighton
Don, just wanted to say I’ve bought a shed load of books you talked about across all these talks I’ve found since discovering your videos from 2017! I now doing group therapy after doing two and a half years in psychodynamic counselling too and never felt better aged 44 with undiagnosed ADHD that I’m in the process of getting help for too. Muchos gracias scholar, Dave Brighton UK
Happy to hear this, thanks and all the best
Thanks so much for defining transference for me. I have never gotten any grip on that word until today. This is much appreciated!
Most welcome, glad you found it helpful.
Thanks.
I have to say I wonder about idea that patients who don't form transference are to be labeled narcissistic. This smacks of patient blaming. Transference feelings towards the analyst are a mild form of insanity (neurotic) so why couldn't a patient who doesn't fall in love or in hate with the analyst not simply have a firm grasp of reality? It also strikes me as narcissistic on the analyst's part to expect they are going to provoke strong affect automatically. That is even more true if the analyst employs a silent waiting stance. Why is a patient expect to form a transference to a person whom they perceive as barely there, cold or indifferent? Then for the patient to be suspected of being unanalysable because they are perceived as narcissistic is to simply add insult to injury. I feel these issues are not taken into account by analysts because they are locked into some almost absurd expectations concerning transference. Lastly it gives analysts a way out when such a patient might leave the analysis. The analyst writes off the patient as unanalysable (narcissistic) instead of seeing that the failure is baked into the cake of their silent waiting method. As Aristotle understood: from nothing comes nothing. This strategy can be whipped out for every analytic failure. The patient is at fault not the holy analyst or their method. Surely these evident reflections must have crossed someone's mind before.
Thank you so much for these videos. I find them very informative and I take great pleasure in learning from them.
Thank you
Thank you Don you total legend. Brilliantly explained.
Thanks Kate, but “total legend“? You mean in my own mind?
Thank you so much I love all your videos!
Most welcome
Just wonderful. This was incredibly interesting and has really helped bring the concept of transference alive for me. Thank you kindly
You are most welcome.
Thanks, and best of luck.
I'd love to learn more about Kohut's place in Freudian theory, as followup of what you have said about this already roundabout 25 minutes and onwards in this video.
I believe I had more to say about covered in some of the earlier videos. Have a look. Not sure when I’ll get to speaking more about him but I’ll try to get to it eventually. Don’t get so enthusiastic about Cohen that you forget he is offering only one piece of a much more complex puzzle. Thanks,
I wish I can enlarge the font of my comment for you. It is freeing to hear you acknowledge that neither the whole-person nor part-object transference might occur, or at least not necessarily early on in the work. In my training for once weekly psychodynamic work, I often felt I was 'missing' the transference in my client work and I looked very hard, perhaps too hard, in order to write about transference in my essays and complete my training. Do you think for it is necessary to rethink what it means to 'work in the transference' when working short-term and seeing clients once weekly, which is common in the UK these days? However, the training organisations are very attached to the golden standard of working in the transference.
Glad you found it helpful
Isn’t that pretty much what I said?