About 30 years ago during analytic training, my good friend Tom Grant was describing a difficult case in seminar — a man in his mid-30s whom Tom had already been treating for quite some time. Tom’s client came from a severely dysfunctional background that had restricted his ability to feel for and depend upon other… Continue reading Self-Loathing
Category: Defense Mechanisms
The most prominent psychological defense mechanisms, including repression, denial, idealization, splitting and projection. This is the category for you.
Lying to Our Clients
During several recent sessions, one of my clients has been struggling to make an important decision in her life that’s causing her considerable anguish — whether or not to leave her husband. I don’t normally give advice in such cases, but based on my lengthy relationship with this client, I strongly believe that she ought… Continue reading Lying to Our Clients
Diary of a Shame Attack
On Saturday, I made a short new video, making use of what I’d learned in media training. I felt very good about that video because I’d confronted some underlying shame and the related wish to remain invisible — that is, relying on a blank facial expression and little modulation in my voice in order to… Continue reading Diary of a Shame Attack
Accentuating the Positive
I haven’t heard it in a number of years, but every once in a while, a client will ask why we talk only about “what’s wrong” in therapy. It’s a valid question. Australian blogger Evan Hadkins, who frequently comments here on After Psychotherapy, has chided me for over-emphasizing the painful aspects of the work I… Continue reading Accentuating the Positive
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Video #4: Resistance
So my book will finally be available on Monday, I’m caught up on all the work I’ve been neglecting and now have some free time to focus on other things, such as continuing my video series on psychodynamic psychotherapy. This is the fourth installment and it deals with resistance in the early phases of treatment.