Talking with Patients

This text argues that psychoanalytic therapy, like art, requires a balance between precise technique and creative intuition. Using numerous examples, the author demonstrates his approach with a range of patients, including those who are angry and depressed.



Self psychology has given us a framework that makes sense of what we have always done intuitively. In Talking with Patients, Shapiro shows how to balance this clinical intuition with precise technique. Combining contributions from intersubjective theory with those of self psychology, he demonstrates to readers how to monitor their patients' responses as well as read their own. Shapiro adds to the empathic, listening orientation of self psychology the utility of inter-action and even confrontation.