Routledge Core Competencies of Relational Psychoanalysis: A Guide to Practice, Study and Research (Relational Perspectives Book Series)

Core Competencies of Relational Psychoanalysis provides a concise and clearly presented handbook for those who wish to study, practice, and teach the core competencies of Relational Psychoanalysis, offering primary skills in a straightforward and useable format. Roy E. Barsness offers his own research on technique and grounds these methods with superb contributions from several master clinicians, expanding the seven primary competencies: therapeutic intent, therapeutic stance/attitude; analytic listening/attunement; working within the relational dynamic, the use of patterning and linking; the importance of working through the inevitable enactments and ruptures inherent in the work; and the use of courageous speech through disciplined spontaneity. In addition, this book presents a history of Relational Psychoanalysis, offers a study on the efficacy of Relational Psychoanalysis, proposes a new relational ethic and attends to the the importance of self-care in working within the intensity of such a model. A critique of the model is offered, issues of race and culture and gender and sexuality are addressed, as well as current research on neurobiology and its impact in the development of the model. The reader will find the writings easy to understand and accessible, and immediately applicable within the therapeutic setting. The practical emphasis of this text will also offer non-analytic clinicians a window into the mind of the analyst, while increasing the settings and populations in which this model can be applied and facilitate integration with other therapeutic orientations. Core Competencies of Relational Psychoanalysis is inspired by Barsness’ students; he was motivated to create a primary text that could assist them in understanding the often complex and abstract models of Relational Psychoanalysis. Relevant for graduate students and novice therapists as well as experienced clinicians, supervisors, and professors, this textbook offers a foundational curriculum for the study of Relational Psychoanalysis, presents analytic technique with as clear a frame and purpose as evidenced based models, and serves as a gateway into further study in Relational Psychoanalyses. Review "Roy Barsness and his co-authors have undertaken the difficult task of presenting a text of Core Competencies in Relational Psychoanalysis to guide younger and more experienced therapists to an integration of theory and practice. The authors outstanding success lies in their skilled address of the challenge in Relational Psychoanalysis to offer an approach that is flexibly attuned to the individuality of each patient/analyst dyad while practiced with a disciplined intent, form, and rhythm. The what and how to do is presented in seven competencies with a coda on love – all becoming enlivened for the reader by clinical narratives. A difficult task well mastered."-Joseph D. Lichtenberg, M.D., Director Emeritus of The Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, author of Craft & Spirit, Editor-in-Chief of the Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series. "While reading this book, I felt like I had entered the mind of the relational analyst. Both the carefully constructed mindset and the overall honoring of the work comes through in every chapter. As a director of the Masters in Counseling program at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, I am always looking for texts that convey both the passion and the skill associated with analytic work to be an inspiration to my students. I have found it."-Francesca Giordano, Ph.D., Program Director, Clinical Professor, The Counseling Program, The Family Institute at Northwestern University. "Originally a reaction against the constricting orthodoxy and authoritarianism of an entrenched psychoanalytic establishment, relational psychoanalysis has evolved into a sophisticated and comprehensive paradigm representing the leading edge of psychoanalytic thought. This masterful volume, with co