Citing research findings that the quality of the alliance is the most robust predictor of success in psychotherapy, and that the therapist's skill is more important to outcome than the therapeutic modality, the authors of Negotiating the Therapeutic Alliance present a guide to coping with therapeutic impasses, ruptures, and strains in contemporary psychotherapy (psychoanalytic, gestalt, client centered, and cognitive). The explanatory framework for their effort is psychoanalytic relational theory in a two-person psychology focused on the here and now. They emphasize that