Seduction, Surrender, and Transformation

Emotional Engagement in the Analytic Process

By: Karen J. Maroda

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Paperback | 1 December 2002 | Edition Number 1

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216 Pages

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What are the actual clinical implications of a relational approach to psychoanalytic therapy? Does recent theorizing about "mutuality" and "intersubjectivity" really change the way analysts work with patients? In her theoretically articulate and clinically sophisticated answer to these questions, Karen Maroda calls on analytic therapists to "show some emotion!" This volume aims to demonstrate how interpersonal psychoanalysis obliges analysts to engage their patients with genuine emotional responsiveness, so that not only the patient but analyst too is open to ongoing transformation through the analytic experience. In so doing, the analyst moves from the position of an "interpreting observer" to that of an "active participant and facilitator" whose affective communications enable the patient to acquire basic self-trust along with self-knowledge. Here, Maroda develops her interpersonal approach by grounding her technical recommendations in a clinical theory of affect. Drawing on literature on affect, Maroda argues that psychological change occurs through affect-laden interpersonal processes. Given that most patients in psychotherapy have problems with affect management, the completing of cycles of affective communication between therapist and patient becomes a vitally important aspect of the therapeutic enterprise. Through emotionally open responses to their patients and careful use of patent-prompted self-disclosures, analysts can facilitate affect regulation responsibly and constructively, with the emphasis always remaining on the patients' experience. Moments of mutual surrender - the honest emotional giving over of patient to analyst and analyst to patient - epitomize the emotionally intense interpersonal experiences that lead to enduring intrapsychic change. Maroda's work is profoundly personal. She does not hesitate to share with the reader how her own personality affects her thinking and her work. Indeed, she believes her theoretical and clinical preferences are emblematic of the way in which the analyst's subjectivity necessarily shapes theory choice and practice preferences in general. The book is not only a brief for emotional honesty in the analytic relationship but also a model of the personal openness that, according to Maroda, psychoanalysis demands of all its practitioners.

Industry Reviews

"Seduction, Surrender, and Transformation provides the best in-depth comparison of one-person and two-person psychologies and the single best presentation of the technical interventions necessary to effect the emotional engagement at the heart of the two-person model that I know. While respectful of classical analysis, Maroda is persuasive in her insistence that therapeutic change depends on the emotional experience of analysis, which dictates 'mutative interventions' in place of 'mutative interpretations.' Of special note are her delineation of 'responsible techniques' for facilitating the patient's affective experience and her very shrewd analysis of the changing conceptions of power and authority within the analytic dyad."

- Ethel Spector Person, M.D., author, By Force of Fantasy: How We Make Our Lives

"Karen Maroda's book represents a significant advance in the clinical application of an intersubjective, or two-person, psychology. In line with much contemporary theory, she moves us toward a thoroughly interactive analytic process that incorporates a fuller understanding of the multifaceted role of affects. And she offers practical clinical insights into the way critical transference and countertransference issues can be transformed from potential destroyers to essential psychotherapeutic tools. Whether or not one is prepared to try all innovations, one welcomes Seduction, Surrender, and Transformation for posing challenges we cannot afford to ignore."

- Henry Krystal, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Michigan State University

"Karen Maroda's outstanding book will have repercussions in the psychoanalytic world for years to come. Its title gives only a faint hint of the courageous, challenging, and controversial scope of the work, which is a passionate plea for emotional honesty in the therapeutic encounter. While the need for emotional intensity and honesty is the recurring motif of the book - the sine qua non of what makes for change - there is no trace of excess. Maroda's many compelling clinical illustrations make it clear that her approach to psychoanalytic theory and therapy is carefully thought out. Over and again, reading Seduction, Surrender, and Transformation made me rethink all manner of stances in which I have found myself in the therapeutic situation. Maroda's is a voice to be heard; listen carefeully to the wisdom that unfolds."

- Emmanuel Ghent, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychology, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis

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