It Takes Two to Know One

The Therapy Relationship and Unconscious Dialogues

Anthony Bass

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9781032210698
  9781032210681
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040716915
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This book explores the nature of relational psychoanalysis in clinical practice, drawing on the author's over four decades of clinical experience as a firstgeneration relational psychoanalyst and many of his foundational papers written
over the past 25 years.

Bass's book demonstrates the depth, scope, and healing power of mutual transformation for patient and analyst within an elastic and flexible analytic frame. Patient and analyst demonstrably co-create the psychotherapeutic space, situation, structure, and experience, and together, promote mutual growth and healing. Drawing on the revolutionary work of Sándor Ferenczi, this book expands our understanding of therapy as "dialogue of unconsciousness," revealing the ways in which the bi-directional currents of unconscious communication may be creatively utilized as an essential therapeutic tool. It sheds light on the conditions and approaches best suited for actualizing a flexible, contextual, creative use of the therapist's self in therapy, establishing an ever-deepening foundation for therapeutic work.

With illuminating case studies and accessible language, this book is a must-read for psychotherapists practicing a wide range of dynamically informed approaches and for anyone interested in learning about new developments in therapy as it is practiced today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1 It Takes Two to Know One: Mutual Relations at the Heart of Therapeutic Action
• 2 Whose Unconscious Is It Anyway?
• 3 When the Frame Doesn’t Fit the Picture
• 4 One Frame, Many Framers: Bromberg, Gabbard, and Me
• 5 “E” Enactments in Psychoanalysis: Another Medium, Another Message
• 6 Mutual Analysis, the Dialogues of the Unconscious, and the Uses of the Self
• 7 The Ordinary Uncanniness of Psychoanalytic Life
• 8 Unmasked: Personal Transformation, Frame Alterations, and Making the Conscious Unconscious in the Traumatic Times of the COVID Pandemic
• 9 Imagining Psychoanalysis: I’s Wide Open – Imagination, Seeing, and Change
• 10 It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over: Infinite Conversations, Imperfect Endings, and the Elusive Nature of Termination
• 11 The Longest Goodbyes: Analysis Everlasting
• 12 I Am Home
• Index