Curative Factors in Dynamic Psychotherapy

No single question raises more of a challenge to dynamic psychotherapy than that of identifying and understanding the critical factors in the curative process that lead to change and cure. What are the seemingly intangible variables that enable patients to overcome symptomatology and maladaptive behaviors, so as to develop and grow as productive human beings? This volume brings together eminent therapists, clinicians, and researchers who have contributed new and creative thinking to this area of concern. Their innovative work has led to an advancement of psychoanalytic knowledge and techniques and thereby to more effective approaches in unraveling the components of psychotherapeutic cure. The contributors address themselves to the exploration, definition, and explication of the alternate and often complex avenues that lead to patient change and cure. This book is unique in not being limited to a single theoretical viewpoint, but instead presents and reflects a broad spectrum of current psychoanalytic thought. Diverse theories and approaches are individually discussed and then brought together to provide a beginning integration. Not limited solely to a clinical or research perspective, the book offers ways of evaluating clinical findings through research so as to strengthen the scientific foundations of psychoanalytic theory and technique.