Theory and Practice: Intimate Partnership or False Connection?

Analysis of transference: A North American perspective

“…If, at times, these appear to be strange bedfellows, I believe they t within the overall framework of the Brennerian model. We all arrive at idiosyncratic integrations of different approaches to the work, and can do so only if we do not insist on a linkage between theory and practice that our theories, at present, cannot bear (Smith, 1997a(Smith, , 1999(Smith, , 2003b.…”

Dialogues on Conflict: Toward an Integration of Methods

“…I am grateful to both Harris and Canestri for describing the overall problem of conflict from within their distinct psychoanalytic traditions, and for taking so seriously a number of my own proposals (Smith 2003a). Such responses from outside one's own perspective not only reveal points of agreement and disagreement between one approach and another, but also allow us to see ourselves through a different lens, a gift I very much appreciate.…”

“…It is a compelling argument. In my paper (Smith 2003a), however, I proposed that we use Waelder in a somewhat different way to suggest: (1) that within any one theoretical system, Waelder's levels are applicable and can be used as tools to clarify the different levels within that particular system; and (2) even granting that observations are shaped by theory, at the levels at which we work clinically, our approaches may be more compatible than we have heretofore considered.…”

“…Brenner's (1994) model, which in his view is the best fit for the clinical data, is also, because of a spareness that reveals multiple clinical options, especially durable in the consulting room. And there are other examples: Schwaber's (1983) effort to follow the patient's experience of the analyst, the self psychologist's attention to empathic ruptures, Gill's (1982) focus on how the analyst's behavior might plausibly be fueling the patient's transference experience, Gray's (1991) attention to the "conveyer belt" of drive derivatives (Smith 2003a), Bionian/Kleinian clinical approaches that closely monitor the oscillation between the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions in the hour-all of these bear the marks of theory that has evolved in the consulting room, inevitably influenced by the experience and needs of the working analyst.…”

“…I would suggest, however, that while the analyst is interpreting the patient's disavowals-and for the very reason Schafer outlines-the identification of disavowal will itself be the seed for further disavowal, reification, and enactment. This is a corollary of the notion that the process of interpreting the patient's wishes will inevitably lend itself to the enactment of the wishes (or fantasies) being interpreted (Smith 2004).…”