Holding and Psychoanalysis, 2nd Edition: A Relational Perspective

By Joyce Anne Slochower

Book Overview

Is there a baby in the relational consulting room? How and when can/should we try to hold our patients? What happens to the analyst's subjectivity when she tries to hold?

In Holding and Psychoanalysis: A Relational Perspective (second Edition), Joyce Slochower brings a contemporary relational framework to bear on Winnicott's notion of the holding environment. Revisiting the clinical impact and theoretical underpinnings of holding, Slochower explores its function in those moments when "ordinary" interpretive or interactive work cannot be tolerated. Slochower expands the holding construct beyond the needs of dependent patients by examining its therapeutic function across the clinical spectrum. Emphasizing holding's coconstructed nature, Slochower explores the contribution of both patient and analyst the holding moment.

This second Edition introduces new theoretical and clinical material, including four additional chapters. Two of these address holding's impact on the patient's capacity to access, articulate and process affect states; the third moves outside the consulting room to explore how holding functions in acts of memorial ritual across the lifespan. A final chapter presents Slochower's latest ideas about holding's clinical function in buffering shame states.

Integrating Winnicott's seminal contributions with contemporary relational and feminist/psychoanalytic perspectives, Joyce Slochower addresses the therapeutic limitations of both interpretive and interactive clinical work. There are times, she argues, when patients cannot tolerate explicit evidence of the analyst's separate presence and instead need a holding experience. Slochower conceptualizes holding within a relational frame that includes both deliberate and enacted elements. In her view, the analyst does not hold alone; patient and analyst each participate in the establishment of a co-constructed holding space. Slochower pays particular attention to the analyst's experience during moments of holding, offering rich clinical vignettes that illustrate the complex struggle that holding entails. She also addresses the therapeutic limits of holding and invites the reader to consider the analyst's contribution to these failures. Slochower locates the holding process within a broader clinical framework that involves the transition toward collaboration--a move away from holding and into an explicitly intersubjective therapeutic frame.

Holding and Psychoanalysis offers a sophisticated integration of Winnicottian and relational thought that privileges the dynamic impact of holding moments on both patient and analyst. Thoroughly grounded in case examples, the book offers compelling clinical solutions to common therapeutic knots. Clearly written and carefully explicated, it will be an important addition to the libraries of psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415640709
• ISBN13: 9780415640701
• Release Date: July 2013
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

contemporary psychoanalysis

Unusually lucid, clinically relevant and rich descriptions of difficult patient situations. Theoretically useful update on Winnicott's work on holding. Highly recommended for therapists working with difficult patients.

A Contemporary Perspective on Holding in Clinical Work

This excellent book represents a sophisticated integration of theory and clinical practice. It offers both dynamically oriented therapists and psychoanalysts a framework that is especially helpful in working with extremely difficult patients who do not respond to standard therapy technique. Slochower uses the notion of holding to describe the therapist's attempt to contain the patient's intense affective responses as well as the therapists struggle to hold himself. Slochower extends holding beyond Winnicott's conception of regression by 1)applying the model to work with borderline and narcissistic patients and 2)by addressing the therapist's participation in the holding process from a relational perspective. Her book is replete with rich clinical examples, illustrating the use of holding with patients struggling with issues of dependence, self involvement, ruthlessness and hate. Throughout the text, she also discusses instances in which the holding stance failed, and carefully addresses the clinical pitfalls of work within a holding metaphor. An especially interesting chapter addresses the holding theme outside the consulting room, in Jewish mourning ritual. A 'must read' for the contemporary clinician, whether of Freudian, Interpersonal, Self Psychological or Relational persuasion.