Finding Words: How the Process and Products of Psychoanalytic Writing Can Channel the Therapeutic Action of the Very Treatment It Sets Out to Describe

Altstein, Rachel

doi:10.1080/1551806x.2015.1108175

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…A number of candidates have spoken to me quite openly about all of these concerns and that progressing or separating from training has been a difficult issue in their personal analyses. Altstein (2016) wrote that as she sat down to write about her clinical work, "I found myself nose to nose with my own deep resistance to indulging in dreams of success and ambition" (p. 61). The article she was writing, and the extensive clinical process that it contained, "signified the beginning of the end to formal training" (p. 61).…”

Section: Transference Anxiety and Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Altstein (2016) wrote that as she sat down to write about her clinical work, “I found myself nose to nose with my own deep resistance to indulging in dreams of success and ambition” (p. 61). The article she was writing, and the extensive clinical process that it contained, “signified the beginning of the end to formal training” (p. 61).…”

Section: Overlapping Resistances To the Writingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lief (1992) observed that while writing a case study, "countertransference resistances connected with the case will be remobilized" (p. 238). Altstein (2016) recognized that, "facets of the treatment described can infiltrate and influence the author's experience of writing; and in turn, the analyst's idea and act of writing about a patient can infuse a treatment, or at least the understanding of a treatment" (p. 51). Sonnenberg (1993) wrote that as he wrote about a supervised analytic case "the process of reviewing my summary records and process notes, organizing my ideas, and writing them down became a stimulus and an opportunity for reflection .…”

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confidence: 99%

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The Process of Case Writing: A Fourth Pillar of Analytic Training

Bernstein

2024

J Am Psychoanal Assoc

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The educational and clinical effects of the process of case writing during analytic training have not been extensively studied, even though the case report, as a product, has prompted attempts to make it a more revealing and accurate document. Countertransference experiences during an analysis can constrain both the candidate’s writing and the analytic work, while examining them during the writing process can deepen the candidate’s analytic work. Three overlapping resistances to the writing, and their underlying anxieties, are described. These are publication resistances: concerns about the anticipated reception of the candidate’s work by potentially critical readers; transference resistances: feelings toward the analytic institute that requires the writing; and countertransference or reimmersion resistances: fears of reawakening reactions from the analysis. These can interfere with finding a safe internal space in which to write. Examples are given of writing through of these resistances during case supervision, resulting in more open writing and in a deepening of the analytic work. As the case writing process can have direct and potentially profound effects on the candidate’s current and future analytic work, it is proposed that the process of case writing is a fourth pillar of analytic training, in addition to the candidate’s personal analysis, case supervision, and didactic seminars.

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Section: Transference Anxiety and Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Overlapping Resistances To the Writingmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Process of Case Writing: A Fourth Pillar of Analytic Training

Bernstein

2024

J Am Psychoanal Assoc

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“…In essence, the act of writing is an attempt to put into words something that takes place in the analyst's mind, arising from the experience in the encounter with another person, the patient. Analysts may also write about patients in order to work out and clarify for themselves something that troubles them about their analytic work with a particular patient; their writing in this way reflects the psychoanalytic process (Alstein 2016 ). In essence, writing about a case may be a form of self-analysis and/or self-supervision (Bass 2016 ).…”

Section: The Use Of Clinical Reports In Psychoanalysis and The Empirimentioning

confidence: 99%

Analytic Process and Linguistic Style: Exploring Analysts’ Treatment Notes in the Light of Linguistic Measures of the Referential Process

Mariani

Hoffman

2021

J Psycholinguist Res

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This paper presents a comparison between a clinical evaluation and a computerized linguistic analysis of the treatment notes of the first two years of an analysis conducted four sessions a week with the patient lying on a couch. Clinical notes had been written as part of the analyst’s standard practice after every session, some years prior to the planning of this study. The notes describe the analytic interchange and the analyst’s internal thoughts. The linguistic analysis focuses on two analytically relevant linguistic variables: Referential Activity (RA), a measure of the degree of connection between emotional processing and language, and Reflection, the use of words referring to thoughts. The examination of the linguistic measures point to overlooked parts of sessions which may be clinically significant. In particular, the examination of the clinical material during the nodal points of the first summer break, where significant changes in the linguistic measures were seen, provided clinical understanding of the analytic work that was not explicitly noted at the time of treatment. This method has the potential to be utilized in ongoing treatments and to improve the supervisory process.

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“…Kantrowitz () explores the ethical implications of writing about patients for publication. Altstein () is wonderfully open about her wish to join the ranks of great psychotherapeutic writers. Papers by Bulgheroni and Panella (), Gerson (), Shechter (), and Stensson () provide other perspectives.…”

Section: Writing Sessions: Practical Concerns and Theoretical Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Session Block: Of Mirrors, Lamps, and other Methods for the Writing up of Notes

Robinson

2017

Brit J Psychotherapy

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Writing up session notes is essential to therapists' practice, yet the literature on psychotherapeutic writing focuses almost exclusively on more complex tasks, such as preparing case studies or pieces for publication. Nonetheless, problems with writing up seem widespread: this article finds that 85% of trainees report difficulty. Such 'session block' has not before been defined. Given the absence of well-accepted psychotherapeutic tools to overcome such block, and given that writing sessions is a challenge of representation -a phenomenon well described in the world of art -this article appropriates methods from aesthetic theory to address the problem. Applying first the Classical aesthetic metaphor of art-as-mirror, the pressure on therapists to produce a clear likeness of the session is explored, and the mirror metaphor is found to be as oppressive as it is widely accepted. By contrast, a revolutionary metaphor from the Romantic era, namely art-as-lamp, wherein the poet casts an inner creative light over the world, holds promise in overcoming countertransferential blocks and permitting an imaginative write-up. This too, though, has drawbacks, and the article concludes by proposing a method which, by integrating metaphors, permits a free-flowing writeup of the session, both creatively rich and clinically accurate.The session ends, the door closes, silence returns. The therapist sits before a screen to type. Like it or not, she must get something down. All training has some element of writing, and supervisors usually expect a written record. For example, The American 'Session block: Of mirrors, lamps, and other methods for the writing up of notes' was awarded the 2016 Rozsika Parker Prize (Student Path).

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Finding Words: How the Process and Products of Psychoanalytic Writing Can Channel the Therapeutic Action of the Very Treatment It Sets Out to Describe

Cited by 9 publications

References 16 publications

The Process of Case Writing: A Fourth Pillar of Analytic Training

The Process of Case Writing: A Fourth Pillar of Analytic Training

Analytic Process and Linguistic Style: Exploring Analysts’ Treatment Notes in the Light of Linguistic Measures of the Referential Process

Session Block: Of Mirrors, Lamps, and other Methods for the Writing up of Notes

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