Enactment

Toward a New Approach to the Therapeutic Relationship

Steven J. Ellman, Michael Moskowitz

• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.
• Year: 1998
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781461628286
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

For many therapists it has replaced previous action terms such as acting in and acting out. Something new has been captured by this concept: a recognition of a process that may involve words but goes beyond words. For some, enactment addresses a continuous undercurrent in the interaction between patient and therapist in the realm of intersubjectivity. Others ask whether this concept adds either clarity or a new perspective to the clinical situation. This volume addresses the questions: Does the current focus on enactments entail a shift in our model of therapeutic change? Are enactments essential? Can they be dangerous, and if so, under what circumstances? Enactment is essential reading for all psychotherapists.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Editors and Contributors
• Introduction
• 1 Freud’s Struggle with Enactment
• 2 General Problems of Acting Out
• 3 Countertranference and Role-Responsiveness
• 4 Acting Out: A Reconsideration of the Concept
• 5 On Countertransference Enactments
• 6 Clinical and Theoretical Aspects of Enactment
• 7 The Evocative Power of Enactments
• 8 The Role of Countertransference Enactment in a Successful Clinical Psychoanalysis
• 9 Between the Scylla and Charybdis of Psychoanalytic Interaction: A Discussion of Owen Renik’s Chapter
• 10 Enactment: What Is It and Whose Is It?
• 11 Is Enactment a Useful Concept?
• 12 Enactments Leading to Insight for Patient, Therapist, and Supervisor
• 13 The Fixity of Action in Character Enactments: Finding a Developmental Regression
• 14 Enactment, Transference, and Analytic Trust
• Credits
• Index