IPA Journal Club
That Was Then, This Is Now: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy For The Rest Of Us
Dr Jonathan Shedler
Moderator of the Journal Club is Jack Drescher, MD.
Dr. Drescher is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in New York City. A recipient of the 2022 Sigourney Award, Dr. Drescher serves on the faculties of the William Alanson White Institute, the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. He is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia as well. His publications have been translated into many languages and he is the author of Psychoanalytic Therapy and the Gay Man (Routledge).
Bio Jonathan Shedler, PhD
Jonathan Shedler, PhD is the author of what may be the most widely read psychoanalytic paper of our time, The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Hailed as a contemporary classic, it firmly established psychoanalytic psychotherapy as an evidence-based treatment. A leading expert on personality styles and disorders, Dr. Shedler is also author of the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200) for personality diagnosis and clinical case formulation. He has written more than 100 scientific and scholarly articles in psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis and his popular blogs reach audiences in the hundreds of thousands. Dr. Shedler lectures internationally and provides clinical consultation to mental health professionals worldwide. He is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and a faculty member at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.
Paper
Abstract
Psychoanalysis has an image problem. The dominant narrative in the mental health professions and in society is that psychoanalysis is outmoded, discredited, and debunked. What most people know of it are pejorative stereotypes and caricatures dating to the horse and buggy era. The stereotypes are fueled by misinformation from external sources, including managed care companies and proponents of other therapies, who often treat psychoanalysis as a foil and whipping boy. But psychoanalysis also bears responsibility. Historically, psychoanalytic communities have been insular and inward facing. People who might otherwise be receptive to psychoanalytic approaches encounter impenetrable jargon and confusing infighting between rival theoretical schools. This article provides an accessible, jargon free, nonpartizan introduction to psychoanalytic thinking and therapy for students, clinicians trained in other approaches, and the public. It may be helpful to psychoanalytic colleagues who struggle to communicate to others just what it is that we do.