You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Lichtenberg has produced a guide for those who are interested in learning more about psychoanalytic treatment and providing answers to questions a prospective patient may ask. The volume is interspersed with clinical illustrations to exemplify points the author wishes to emphasize. These case vignettes provide a "taste" of what psychoanalysts do and what they understand about their patients.
Lichtenberg nicely divides his book into sections that illustrate the process of recognizing the need for help, finding a qualified psychoanalyst with whom one may wish to work, the initial consultation, the beginning of the psychoanalytic treatment—including the agreement to the analytic "contract," the use of the couch, and of free association—the various phases of the psychoanalytic treatment, and finally, the termination phase.
The writing is clear and uncomplicated by technical language. Various concepts such as psychic determinism and transference are simply and briefly described. Lichtenberg addresses questions that are often asked but rarely written about, e.g., the influence of the analyst's personality, race, ethnic background, age, sex, or religion on the analytic relationship. He addresses the kinds of questions an analyst asks in the consultation, how the analyst arrives at a diagnostic impression and a subsequent recommendation to the potential patient.
The arrangements for the beginning of analytic treatment include such practical "contractual" items as setting the fee, appointment times, continuity of therapy, missed appointments, vacations, holidays, as well as more technical considerations, e.g., making no major decisions while in psychoanalytic treatment, use of the couch, and free association. The actual beginning or opening phase is again discussed by Lichtenberg in a simple, direct, and clear fashion. The understanding of how one's mind works, defenses, themes and patterns that are recurrent, and how these relate to the analyst and the analytic situatio