Authenticity in the Psychoanalytic Encounter brings together Irma
Brenman Pick's original contributions to psychoanalytic technique.
Working within the Kleinian tradition, she produces vivid clinical
narratives that succeed in shedding a humane light on the struggles that
patients - and, indeed, all of us - face in recognising, in an authentic
way, our need for, and the contribution of, others in our lives.
Brenman Pick is interested in the infantile antecedents of conflict in
her patients, and the book demonstrates the attention needed to sense
how these may be present in the patient's clinical material. This
involves an ability to understand the complex and sophisticated
unconscious phantasies that are alive in the patient's mind. She
combines this with a creative clinical imagination that allows her to
address these expertly in the here-and-now of the analytic encounter. A
particular feature of this is the way Brenman Pick uses the analyst's
countertransference to bring in ways in which the struggle over
authenticity also extends to the analyst. The focus on authenticity runs
through the book and brings an interesting and original perspective to
the topics discussed, which include adolescence, sexual identity,
stealing and its relationship to the acknowledgement of dependency, the
experience of uncertainty, concern for the object, destructiveness,
creativity and the striving towards integration.
These contributions will prove invaluable to psychoanalysts,
psychotherapists and other mental health professionals interested in
deepening their understanding of the complex relationships that can
arise in the consulting room.
