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.
In these volumes, Dr. Deutsch and Dr. Murphy present a technique of associative exploration and psychotherapy and their method of
teaching it. The work was begun by Dr. Deutsch, motivated at first by his interest in research into psychosomatic conditions, and later his teaching at Washington University. More recently it has been further developed by both authors in their resident training programs at the Boston and Cushing Veterans Administration Hospitals as a response to the increasing demands of psychiatric residents for applicable psychoanalytic knowledge, particularly since the end of World War II. The bulk of these volumes is composed of verbatim recordings of clinical interviews conducted at the latter institutions. Italicized interpretative and explanatory comments are scattered parenthetically, with good use of 'hindsight', throughout the texts of the interviews at appropriate places. In addition there are three chapters on theory and one devoted to criticism and conclusions.
A wide variety of symptom complexes and psychodynamic constellations are alluded to in the chapter headings of the clinical material; but from a structural point of view, most of the cases would seem to fall near the narcissistic end of the diagnostic scale, i.e., psychosomatic and 'borderline' conditions. This fact accounts for the authors' belief that otherwise unsupportable theoretical generalizations are documented in the clinical material, e.g., 1, that 'symptom removal is achieved without marked personality changes, and very often with by-passing the resistances'; 2, that actively fostered 'narcissistic identification' of patient with therapist, inadequately distinguished from object-libidinous aspects of transference, is seen as being always therapeutically useful rather than as a resistance.
The book is addressed primarily to beginners in psychiatry, especially the psychiatric resident, but also to those others who wish to improve their own special psychotherapeutic techni