Interventions in the Bipersonal Field

The Adaptational-Interactional Dimension of Countertransference

“…These postulates are based on an amalgam of clinical observations and an extensive review of the psychoanalytic literature (Langs, 1976a, b), and they will shaped with a view toward enhancing our understanding of the treatment interaction and with some stress on their pertinence to analytic and therapeutic technique'. The present investigation of countertransference is somewhat different than the prior explorations that I have undertaken (Langs, 1974(Langs, , 1976a, in that I shall focus almost exclusively on the interactional aspects of countertransference and shall concentrate on recent conceptions developed largely since those earlier publications-some of which have not been considered at all in the prior writings of myself or others. I shall adopt an approach that concentrates on the delineation, elaboration, and clinical illustration of these postulates, and while the ideas to be * This paper will appear in a forthcoming volume on countertransference coedited by L. Epstein, Ph.…”

“…It is my empirically derived conclusion (Langs, 1975b(Langs, , 1976a. b) that it is the analyst's main responsibility, to the extent that it is feasible, to maintain the framework in tact in the face of all inappropriate efforts at deviation; I am therefore in no way advocating conscious-or unconsicous-participation in inappropriate modifications of the frame.…”

Change in the Therapist: The Role of Patient-Induced Inspiration

“…While few have directly discussed inspiration, the importance of thera pist change has been addressed by Guntrip,4 Langs,5,6 Searles7 and others. Guntrip4 conceptualized psychotherapy as an interaction between the personalities of two persons, each of whom would develop emotionally if conditions were optimal.…”

The peer supervisory group for psychoanalytic therapists

“…While neglecting, for the most part, the role of peers, various writers have considered the role of the training analyst and the clinical supervisors in the development of a psychoanalyst (e.g., Ferenczi & Rank, 1925;Glover, 1955;Langs, 1976;Racker, 1968;Searles, 1979;Wolstein, 1959). The training analyst maintains many parent functions, most obviously in fantasy, but also in reality.…”