Intricate Engagements: The Collaborative Basis of Therapeutic Change

by Steven A. Frankel

In this fine book, Dr. Steven A. Frankel paints the portraits of his collaborating patients vividly, graphically, and with consummate compassion. His review of psychoanalytic theories and research is, in itself, a prodigious and productive education. It is tempting to suggest that this important contribution to psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy is one illustration of theory finally catching up to sensitive and effective practice.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765700239
• ISBN13: 9780765700230
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Globe Pequot Publishing Group Inc/Bloomsbury
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Remarkably insightful, forward looking book on psychotherapy

Frankel captures the dilemma of the contemporary psychotherapist: how to integrate the fact that patient and can never get to know each other with certainty, can only strive toward being fully authentic, while it is desparately important to the patient to be known and to feel the therapist is genuine. The book is scholarly, reviewing theories of pschodynamic psychotherapy, child development literature, and theories of change. It is innovative in that Frankel uses his own qualitative method of reviewing detailed clinical passages (100 of them) to check and revise his assumptions about what happened clinically, and devises a general, practical model of the mind that cuts across theoretical barriers. Mostly, the book is honost and self-revealing; detailing the authors personal journey to find certainty within his work. The book is well written and a pleasure to read.