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Summary: The Emotionally Engaged Analyst
Review: Are you hungry to read a book by a psychoanalyst who actually encourages you to express your feelings with your patients? Are you ready to have neutrality seriously questioned for its inherent flaws, and mutuality encouraged as a way of being rather than simply an intellectual concept? Are you tired of reading about how insight, by itself, cures when this has not been your experience? Are you longing for someone who admits, in a jargon-free way, what she actually says with her patients and doesn't omit what might be considered controversial or a failure? Would you like to learn how a psychoanalyst uses her countertransference reactions in an open, honest, gently confrontive way with her patients? Want to read about an analyst who's exposing, empowering, courageous and brave?
If so, then Karen Maroda's Seduction, Surrender and Transformation is a must read. Dr. Maroda, a psychoanalyst practicing in Milwaukee, is a true intersubjectivist, using a relational, dyadic, two-person psychology model where both patient and analyst are active participants. She brings her true (or private) self, along with her authenticity, feelings and responses, to the therapeutic relationship. One result of this approach is less discrepancy between her true and false selves while doing psychotherapy. What we learn from this book is how to create an intimate atmosphere of true mutuality, where the therapist may model emotions that were forbidden by the patient's parents, thus not properly modeled for the patient. Maroda looks at what really happens when you, the therapist, reveal so much less of yourself than the patient. Maroda cautions against blaming the parents of the patient, so that you become the good, idealized object, the one who really understands. What Maroda offers that perhaps the parents didn't is emotional honesty, the real deal.
Maroda's actual work remains very much in the ritual of the psychoanalytic process. She cautions against inappropriate personal self-disclosure, especially when the patient does not initiate it or when the possible reasons for this request are not fully understood. She also cautions against emotional honesty when it is not at the request of the patient. Or, when it's used to alleviate the therapist's anxiety or done too early in the treatment. She examines when the lack of personal disclosure can be damaging to the patient because of remoteness in the therapist, a narcissistic blow to the patient, or the over-use of power by the analyst. She reminds us, and I think we're well aware, that we reveal so much information about ourselves as human beings whether we like it or not. She talks about what is crazy-making for the patient, and the need to confirm what the patient already knows to be true. Maroda provides guidelines on when to have a judicious, occasional self-disclosure rule (about one's self or one's feelings) and when to refrain. These guidelines are part of the golden nuggets this book has to offer. Even if you're not looking for reassurance that it's okay to be real with your patient, why not curl up with a book on theory that's actually personal and lively? Have fun.
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