The importance of therapeutic alliance is described. Therapeutic alliance, transference, and transference acting-out are defined and distinguished from each other and the therapeutic task of helping the patient to convert transference acting-out to therapeutic alliance and transference is outlined. The differences in the form and content of the intrapsychic structure are described to show why different therapeutic techniques are necessary to establish the therapeutic alliance: Confrontation with the borderline and mirroring interpretation of narcissistic vulnerability with the Narcissistic Personality Disorder. A brief case illustrates each.
The evaluation is the single most important clinical task of therapists who work with sexual problems. That is because accurate assessment is the key to successful treatment, and many unnecessary therapy failures can be traced to inadequate evaluation procedures and to the failure of the therapist to elicit pertinent information. Traditional psychological and psychiatric examinations, which emphasize the childhood roots of sexual problems are not adequate for evaluating sexual disorders. Dr. Kaplan will demonstrate her method of evaluation, which focuses on the patient's or couple's current sexual behavior and experience. This, together with historic information, provides the information required for understanding the dynamics of the dysfunction and for formulating a rational treatment plan.
Two cases in which dream work played important roles will be presented and illustrated with videotaped sessions. The first is a case of a young single man with premature ejaculation, wherein the active, psychodynamic use of dream work "broke through'' the patient's intense resistance. The other is that of a married man with primary retarded ejaculations in which dreams were used to guide the behavioral aspects of therapy.
Topical Panel 07 from the Evolution of Psychotherapy 1990 - Sexuality
Featuring Albert Ellis, PhD; Helen Singer Kaplan, MD, PhD; Alexander Lowen, MD; and Judd Marmor, MD, PhD.
Moderated by Joseph Barber, PhD.
Dialogue 04 from the Evolution of Psychotherapy 1990 - Sex Roles / Sex Rules, featuring Helen Singer Kaplan, MD, PhD, and Miriam Polster, PhD.
Moderated by Ellyn Bader, PhD.