The Power of Countertransference: Innovations in Analytic Technique

by Karen J. Maroda

Book Overview

A signpost of the relational turn in contemporary psychoanalysis, Karen Maroda's The Power of Countertransference, published in 1991, is perhaps the first systematic effort to integrate the need for mutual emotional exchanges, which may include the analyst's own self-disclosures, into an interactive model of psychoanalytic practice. Maroda's call for emotional honesty and affective self-disclosure had an immediate impact on the field and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 088163414X
• ISBN13: 9780881634143
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Essential info for therapists and interested others

Maroda is a psychoanalyst and much of what she writes relates specifically to that form of doing therapy. However, what she has to say is far too important to anyone doing therapy for this to be a deterrent to reading the book. Her thesis is that the real healing in therapy comes through the relationship between the therapist and client and that this relationship should be one between equals. She advocates that therapists respond openly to client questions, avoiding the traditional authoritarian, I-know-what's good-for-you stance that may have been (but probably wasn't)appropriate in Freud's time and culture but isn't today. As a client and therapist, I found this book inspiring.