Walking the middle ground between hermeneutics and science: A research proposal on psychoanalytic process

Doing-together with words: the sequential unfolding of a moment of meeting in a psychoanalytic therapy session

Changes in psychoanalytic therapy have been traditionally attributed to self-knowledge (insight) in the client, provided by the therapist's interpretations. In recent years there has been growing realization that such changes can also be the consequence of the development of new forms of relatedness through client-therapist interaction, particularly through special intersubjective moments called moments of meeting. Drawing on the methods and findings of Conversation Analysis about the sequential organization of psychotherapeutic interaction, this single-case study examines the unfolding of a moment of meeting in the final session of a brief psychoanalytic therapy in Peru (in Spanish) with a female client victim of domestic violence. Our analysis shows that the moment of meeting, which resolves a challenge to the intersubjective relationship posed by a now moment, comes about interactionally through a sequentially accomplished shared practice of co-animation. In this sequence the client, who had previously assumed a passive role, exercises her own agency to assume an active role, which the therapist ratifies through his response. In this way, a momentary but significant transformation in the here-and-now relationship between client and therapist occurs. Thus, our analysis contributes to the understanding of how a transformation of relation-the transitory emergence of a new form of relatedness-can take place in and through sequentially organized talk and action in psychotherapy. Our study also sheds light on the role of language in moments of meeting, as the moment of meeting in our segment does not occur in parallel with the exchange of linguistic utterances between client and therapist, but through the exchange of such linguistic utterances and through the sequence of actions carried out by that exchange. In this way, the sequential doing-together with words leads to a moment of meeting, bringing about change, at least momentarily, in the implicit ways-of-being-with-others of the client.

The Clinical Relevance of Interdisciplinary Research on Affect Regulation in the Analytic Relationship

After more than a century of existence, theoretical development, research, and clinical practice within the psychoanalytic movement have consistently demonstrated that psychoanalysis is not a unitary and autonomous discipline. This has been evidenced by the various ways in which psychoanalytic thought and practice have been informed by and have established a dialogue-more or less fruitful-with related disciplines (neurosciences, developmental psychology, psychotherapy research, attachment theory and research, feminism, philosophy). This dialogue has contributed to a better understanding of the functioning of the human psyche, and therefore of the analytic process, informing clinical interventions. In turn, it has enriched research on psychoanalytic practice and process, underlining the fact that research in psychoanalysis is fundamentally about clinical practice. Since its origins, psychoanalysis has made explicit the work on the patient-analyst relationship as the terrain in which the analytic process unfolds. For its part, research in psychotherapy has demonstrated the relevance of the therapeutic relationship for the good development and outcome of any psychotherapeutic process. This supports the argument that research in clinical psychoanalysis should be research on the impact of the analyst interventions on the analyst-patient relationship. In this context, a central element of what happens in the analytic relationship refers to affect communication and therefore, affect regulation, which is manifested in the transferential and counter-transferential processes, as well as in the therapeutic bond. On the other hand, affective regulation is found at the crossroads of etiopathogenesis, complex personality models and psychopathology, allowing the understanding of human functioning and the staging of these configurations in the patient-analyst relationship. In this way, research on affective regulation in the analytic process is proposed as a path that exemplifies interdisciplinary research and scientific pluralism from which psychoanalysis enriches and progresses as a discipline. The case of a line of research on affective regulation in psychoanalytic psychotherapy is illustrated. The need to resort to other disciplines, as well as the translational value of our research and its clinical usefulness, is discussed.