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Therapists who have had the good fortune to undergo supervision or analysis with Dr. Spotnitz have long urged him to share his views concerning treatment with a wider professional audience. Now, in The Couch and the Circle, an author whose clinical papers are marked by almost skeletal brevity permits the reader to study his methods in the more congenial atmosphere of extended clinical demonstration.
Because of its unpretentious and discursive style, the book might at first glance be mistaken for a popularized account of the development and practical application of group therapy. Yet therein lies its greatest strength; it has accomplished the difficult feat of being both comprehensible to the interested lay leader and serving as a potentially valuable study aid for students of psychoanalysis who prefer the human protocol to the smokescreen of technical jargon.
Couch and Circle is composed of three sections. The first focusses chiefly on the author's own induction into the practice of group analysis via experiences with his first therapy group. Interwoven is an interesting account of the historical development of group therapy in general.
Section Two deals with the problems encountered in treatment, seen through the eyes of the individual patient in the group, the group as a unit, and the therapist. The author's evaluations of his patients' productions and his procedures are described in relation to certain guiding principles evolved over the years:
Today I no longer attempt to operate within the framework of any one method. I base treatment on the major concepts of resistance and transference—Freud's
Page 124own definition of psychoanalysis—but employ whatever techniques will help to implement these concepts. I try to find out what the individual patient needs and treat him accordingly. (p. 239)
Resistance is regarded, not as a necessary evil, but as a protective device with “distinct social and personal value.”
…. I often help group members to resist talking about themselves in