On the Analyzing Instrument

Balter, Leon; Lothane, Zvi; Spencer, James H.

doi:10.1080/21674086.1980.11926924

Cited by 69 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The entire second issue of the 1992 Journal of Clinical Psychoanalysis was devoted to Isakower's previously unpublished writing on the topic and commentaries by others. Especially, see Spencer, Balter, and Lothane (1992) in that issue and in earlier papers (Balter, Lothane, and Spencer 1980;Balter and Spencer 1991;Spencer and Balter 1990). These authors approach observation in psychoanalysis in a manner strikingly similar to my proposal, but arrive at very different conclusions.…”

Section: Proposed Simple Operational Definitions Of Introspection Exmentioning

confidence: 68%

The Fundamental Importance of Simple Operational Definitions of Introspection and Empathy

Welker¹

2005

The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Proposed Simple Operational Definitions Of Introspection Exmentioning

confidence: 68%

The Fundamental Importance of Simple Operational Definitions of Introspection and Empathy

Welker¹

2005

The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Balter, Lothane, and Spencer (1980) report the following dream of a young woman struggling with phallic conflicts and a sense of genital deficiency: "She had only one breast. She was to go to the hospital the next day 'to have a breast removed.'…”

Section: Pat I E N T S ' S U R G I C a L M E Ta P H O R Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Plying the Steel: a Reconsideration of Surgical Metaphors in Psychoanalysis

Ivey¹

2010

J Am Psychoanal Assoc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Among the metaphors that Freud used to describe psychoanalysis, the surgical is possibly the most deplored. It is considered an anachronistic remnant of a dubious medical ideology that psychoanalysis has largely renounced. However, while analysts today avoid surgical analogies, their patients continue to produce surgical fantasies about analytic treatment. This fact alone requires a serious consideration of the meanings that surgical metaphors have for them. A second reason for reconsidering the role of the surgical metaphor, from the analyst's perspective, lies in its creative revival by W. R. Bion. Disregarding the shift away from surgical analogizing, Bion employed the metaphor to vividly portray various aspects of the analytic situation and the patient's experience of them. A brief historical overview of the surgical metaphor in psychoanalysis is provided, followed by an account of the reasons for its demise and by a review of the criticisms that continue to be leveled at it. Bion's use of surgical metaphors toward the end of his life is then explored. Finally, illustrations are given of the various ways in which patients use spontaneous surgical metaphors to depict transference and the analytic process. Though the analyst should not deliberately adopt surgical metaphors, it is important to remain open to these transference portrayals.

show abstract

“…There he offers an operational description of the method of "using the unconscious as an instrument in the analysis" (Freud, 1912a), which was later formulated by Isakower as the analyzing instrument and explicated in other papers (Baiter, Lothane and Spencer, 1980;Lothane, 1981b). At the same time as he wrote on technique, the essence of which, operationally, was free association for the patient and its counterpart, free-floating attention for the analyst, Freud also gave the mature expression to the concept transference.…”

Section: Reality Dream and Traumamentioning

confidence: 99%