Provides a comparative framework for exploring the broad array of concepts
developed for understanding interactive processes between analysand and
analyst. This book considers the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis,
anachronistic ideals, and the problems of gender and sexual orientation in the
age of postmodernism.In "Influence and Autonomy in Psychoanalysis", Mitchell provides a
critical, comparative framework for exploring the broad array of concepts newly
developed for understanding interactive processes between analysand and
analyst. Drawing on the broad traditions of Kleinian theory and interpersonal
psychoanalysis, as well as object relations and progressive Freudian thought,
he considers in depth the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis, anachronistic
ideals like anonymity and neutrality, and the problems of gender and sexual
orientation in the age of postmodernism. The problem of influence guides his
discussion of these and other topics. How, Mitchell asks, can analytic
clinicians best protect the patient's autonomy and integrity in the context of
our growing appreciation of the enormous personal impact of the analyst on the
process?
