Perhaps the most important aspect of the therapeutic process is the relationship between therapist and client. For years, two major schools of thought have strongly disagreed about what the nature of that relationship should be. The humanists emphasized warmth and empathy. The psychoanalysts kept a neutral, cool distance. Recently, however, the beginnings of a reconciliation between these traditions have opened new possibilities for the way therapists relate to clients.

In "Between Therapist and Client," Michael Kahn shows why this new consensus is promising. Beginning with Freud's discovery of transference, Kahn traces the history of the clinical relationship from Carl Rogers' introduction of humanistic concerns through Merton Gill's theory and technique of transference analysis, to the pioneering work of Heinz Kohut, who has most successfully brought together psychoanalytic and humanistic thought. Using vivid examples from his own practice, Kahn shows how a coherent synthesis of these various approaches leads to the most successful clinical relationships.

Completely updated with greater discussion of ethics and countertransference, the new edition of "Between Therapist and Client" is essential reading for those in psychotherapy both therapist and client.

Michael Kahn

Why Study the Relationship?

Five Propositions

A Short History of the Relationship

From Dilemma to Dialectic



The Discovery of Transference: Sigmund Freud

Breuer and Bertha: The Discovery of Transference

The Theory of Templates

The Repetition Compulsion

Transference



The Influence of the Humanists: Carl Rogers

Rogers' Great Influence

A Therapy of Love

The Three Attributes as Continua

The Implication of Rogers' Theory

Rogers' Optimal Therapy



A Re-experiencing Therapy: Merton Gill

What About Therapy Is Therapeutic?

Conditions for Therapeutic Re-experiencing

A New Importance Seen in Transference

The Inevitability of Resistance

Decoding the Transference

Liberating the Therapist's Warmth and Spontaneity

The Place of Remembering

Interpreting Resistance to the Recognition of Transference

The Therapist's Contribution to the Client's Experience

Validating the Client's Perception and Interpretation

The Therapeutic Relationship



The Meeting of Psychoanalysis and Humanism: Heinz Kohut

The Beginnings

Kohut's Two Questions

The Theoretical Issue

The Issue of Therapeutic Technique

The Liberated Therapist



Countertransference

Two Hidden Dramas

Sources of Countertransference

Obstructive and Useful Countertransference

The Therapist's Difficulties



pardThe Need for Vigilance



The Therapist's Dilemmas

The Conservative-to-Radical Continuum

Self-Disclosure: Too Little or Too Much?

Disclosing Feelings

Failures of Empathy

Intersubjectivity

Discarding the Therapist Mask



The New Relationship

An Integration

Increasing the Client's Awareness of the Relationship

Attending to the Selfobject Transferences

Helping Client Learn About the Power of the Past

Therapy as an Intersubjective Situation

The Question of Diagnosis

And When the Therapy Must Be Brief?

In the Consulting Room



Suggested Readings

Notes

Index