Alan R. Kindler

In this elegant synopsis of his integration of developmental, clinical, and neuroscientific theory, Lichtenberg offers a complex but coherent framework for the analytic investigation of the experience of both participants, for the study of the clinical exchange, for our technical interventions, and for understanding the positive changes that emerge from the psychoanalytic process. Lichtenberg emphasizes the study of experience, the unfolding and transforming “lived experience” of earlier development and current life, including life as experienced within the analytic relationship. I have found Lichtenberg's approach theoretically appealing and clinically useful. Others, however, have found it overly complex and difficult to apply. For this reason I wish to focus my discussion around a brief excerpt from an analysis in order to illustrate the application of some elements of his framework—motivational systems, the intersubjective perspective, the technique of “wearing the attributions,” and the three elements of the curative process.

J. is an attractive woman of thirty-five, twice married and twice divorced, whose analytic treatment had been completed, with some sucess, several years ago. She had come to see me two years after she had abruptly ended her previous treatment. She had been involved sexu-ally with her previous psychotherapist for several years, until he was found guilty of professional misconduct following a complaint by another female patient. J. had terminated her treatment despite his protest and moved to Toronto to escape the intense feelings she attributed to his proximity. She became severely impaired emotionally and was unable to work for many months. She felt as though she had