Psychoanalytic Craft

Laurence Spurling is Senior Lecturer in Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College, UK, with overall responsibility for the counselling and psychotherapy programmes at Birkbeck. He is also a consultant adult psychotherapist and works in private practice as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. He is the author / editor of six previous books, including An Introduction to Psychodynamic Counselling, now in its second edition.

• IntroductionPART I:OBSTACLES TO DEVELOPMENT1. The Developing Practitioner2. What Gets Missed out in Analytic Accounts3. The Babelization of Psychoanalytic Language4. Why Theory Does Not Inform PracticePART II: PSYCHOANALYTIC PRACTICE AS A FORM OF CRAFT5. TheCraft Metaphor6. Analytic "Rules" and Craft Practice7. Counter-transference and Containment RevisitedPART III: DESCRIBING THE CRAFT: EXAMPLES FROM PRACTICE8. A Session from an Intensive Therapy9. Two Sessions from a Brief TherapyPART IV: Developing the Craft: Examples from Clinical Discussion, Supervision and Teaching10. Thinking about Interventions: An Example from a Clinical Discussion Group11. How Working Models Inform Practice: An Example from a Supervision Group12. Developing One's Own Way of Working: An Example from TeachingConcluding Remarks

'This fascinating window into everyday analytic work makes compelling reading for practitioners in their various roles: as assessors, therapists, supervisors - and patients. Destined to be essential reading for all self-scrutinising psychoanalytic and counselling training programmes.' - Prof Jeremey Holmes MD FRCPsych, University of Exeter, UK