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.
Teaching and psychoanalysis are said to be the two impossible professions. That would make teaching psychoanalysis impossible squared. In spite of that, there is no shortage of books on the teaching of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Vamik Vokan has made a significant contribution to this field with Psychoanalytic Technique Expanded: A Textbook on Psychoanalytic Treatment.
Why is teaching psychoanalysis so difficult? (I already have taken the perhaps overly optimistic step of moving from “impossible” to “very difficult”—a step that might be questioned.) Among the more obvious reasons are that there is no agreement in the field about what constitutes an adequate theory, no agreement on elements of technique, and no agreement on how to define, let alone measure, the desired outcome, or even if it is sensible to try to do so. These are all problems for the practice, as well as the teaching, of psychotherapy. In addition, there is the insidious worry that psychotherapy is a practice, a craft, highly individual to both patient and therapist, and that while it can be coached and encouraged, it can no more be taught than one can teach, in general, how to have a good marriage.
There is general agreement that of the three main components of programs for teaching psychoanalysis—the personal experience of analysis, supervision of individual cases, and didactic classwork—the class-work is the least important. However, that is the main area in which a book such as Volkan's would be useful, and I take it as offered as a primary (or at least adjunct) text for a class on analytic technique. In this light, it must be read in comparison with texts by Gabbard (2010), Kaner and Prelinger (2005), Balsam and Balsam (1984), Storr (1980), Cabaniss et al. (2011), and others. The options for such a text would be to focus primarily, though not exclusively, on theory, on technique, or on case descriptions. Volkan clearly leans heavily toward the last of these; the book consists