Diversity, Discipline and Devotion in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Gertrud Mander originally worked as a journalist and translator, before retraining as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist at the Westminster Pastoral Foundation in London, where she was as a supervisor and trainer of supervisors for twenty three years. She has published widely in the field, mostly in the British Journal of Psychotherapy, where she is a member of the Editorial Board, and the book 'A Psychodynamic Approach to Brief Therapy'. This book is a collection of essays written over two decades and reflects her wide interests in the field of psychotherapy and counselling.

• ContentsIntroductionMODELS AND METHODS1) Beginnings, Endings, and Outcome. A Comparison of Methods and Goals2) From Free Association to the Dynamic Focus: Towards a Model of Recurrent Psychotherapy3) In Praise of Once-weekly Work: Making a Virtue of Necessity or Treatment of Choice4) Dilemmas in Brief Therapy5) Suitability and Context for Brief Therapy6) Bereavement Counselling7) The Selection of Candidates for Training in Psychotherapy and CounsellingCLINICAL AND OTHER MATTERS7) The Stifled Cry or Truby King, The Forgotten Prophet8) Some Thoughts on Sibling Rivalry and Competitiveness10) The Absent Father and his Return: Echoes of War11) Fatherhood Today: Variations on a Theme12) Abuse and Recovery13) Herman Melville's 'Bartleby' or Defiant Resistance in the Service of the Impoverished Self14) The Burden of Being German15) The Fear of Death

'Gertrud Mander's collected papers reflect more than 25 years thoughtful engagement with her major interests in the field. They demonstrate the diversity of her thinking, within a discipline that shows no sign of the rigidity that has at times slowed down new ways of working, such as onceweekly therapy, and time-limited brief therapy. The papers also shine with Dr Mander's devotion to her work, and her love of literature and ideas.'- Michael Jacobs, Fellow of BACP, Psychodynamic Psychotherapist, Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University'Freud contrasted the pure gold of psychoanalysis with the alloys of less intensive psychotherapy. Gertrud Mander energetically champions these less intensive therapies-once-a-week, short-term and recurrent-out of the rich store of her more than 25 years' clinical experience. In other chapters she discusses specific issues: the role of fathers, the effect of paternal absence in wars, sibling rivalry, the real nature of Truby King's contribution. Throughout these highly readable papers we meet a warm, active-minded, practical therapist, firmly earthed in the abundant specifics of the consulting-room, able both to think outside the box and to appreciate deeply the range and richness of the analytic traditions. A democratic voice in a profession often accused of exaggerated hierarchy.'- David M. Black, Member of the British Psychoanalytical Society'Gertrud Mander brings to bear her many years of practice, teaching and writing together in this book of essays. Although the thrust of the writing is within the psychodynamic framework, she tackles many of the contemporary issues in psychological therapies of all kinds. It will therefore make excellent reading for those practitioners looking for a wider, considered view.'- Douglas Hooper, Former President of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy