Courting Surprise

Philosophically-informed psychotherapy and the concept of transference.

“…Another important point is that when such transference phenomena do occur in the psychotherapy context it always seems to me that these are indeed very interactional phenomena (Hersch, 2003a;Hoffman, 1998;Stolorow & Atwood, 1992), that how I am with the patient at that moment is an integral part of exactly what and how the particular variants on these old themes will develop. A large literature on Constructionism stresses this point as well (see, for instance, Gergen, 1985;Spense, 1982;Stern, 1990). In other words, I and my feelings are not merely incidental to the quality of some "pre-packaged" set of feelings which could come out anywhere just the same, with the name of transference attached to them.…”

Gender Policing in the Clinical Setting: Discussion of Sandra Silverman’s “The Colonized Mind: Gender, Trauma, and Mentalization”

“…Suddenly, things are moving too quickly for the therapist (Stern, 1990). To Silverman, Ava cutting her hair had a more traditional psychoanalytic meaning, that of moving "toward a more expansive sense of herself as female" (p. 59).…”

Navigating the Countertransference Experience: A Transtheoretical Specifist Model

“…When predominant, EEX may signal a state of mind that is productive for therapeutic work, characterized by a capacity to be surprised (D. B. Stern, 1990), openness to turn unexpected ‘now moments’ into ‘moments of meeting’ (D. N. Stern et al, 1998), an inquisitive stance (Fonagy & Bateman, 2019), appropriate responsiveness (Stiles et al, 1998) and other related features. When ignored, it must be a signal of an overly saturated (Bion, 1970) mental state within the therapist, a ‘subjugating third’ (Ogden, 2004) or that SCT and OCT have captured most of the experiential field, in which case transference and countertransference expectations as defined in the classical view have become quite ‘real’.…”