Psychoanalysis as it exists today is not constituted by a single theoretical framework describing pathology and indicating a specific set of interventions. Since Freud originally conceptualised psychoanalytic understanding of pathology and psychoanalysis as a mode of intervention, there have been many revisions and reformulations of his theory. This thesis has attempted to integrate some psychoanalytic ideas regarding personality formation, psychopathology and psychotherapeutic intervention (Fairbairn, 1952; Ogden, 1992, 1994), with interpersonal (strategic / structural) ideas regarding intervention (Minuchin, 1974; Sullivan, 1940, 1953, 1964). In order to do so, the thesis used the relational psychoanalytic perspective, as depicted by Aron (1996) and Mitchell and Aron (1999), as an overarching conceptual framework. The focus from these points of view is the patient's internalized relationship patterns and the therapist's participation in their repetition. It is held that internalized relationship patterns are not only based on, but can be changed by, lived experience. From this perspective, the goal of therapy is to enhance the patient's capacity to reflect and think about experience, and therefore, to communicate about it. This means a change in the patient's predominant mode of communication. Ogden's (1994) modes of communication were described. The thesis suggested that Ogden's modes of communication can be stretched or translated into the types of communication outlined by Langs (1978). This thesis aimed to explore the deliberate use of countertransference responses to facilitate communication in the beginning stages of therapy with patients functioning predominantly in the paranoid-schizoid mode (Ogden, 1992). Patients who operate in this mode are often unable to tolerate interpretation and therefore traditional approaches to intervention are not effective. A "strategic / structural relational psychoanalytic" approach to treatment was proposed. It was suggested that therapists utilize joining and accommodation techniques as described by Minuchin (1974) and alter their style of interaction to match that of the various object relational constellations that they have managed to identify within the patient via their countertransference responses. It was hypothesized that patients need their therapists to be similar to their original objects in order to feel safe in the therapeutic environment and that this may facilitate communication in the beginning stages of therapy. The research utilized a qualitative research approach. Qualitative research methods attempt to use data gathered phenomenologically, always acknowledging the researcher's biases when gathering the data. The data gathered is then interpreted according to various theories or hermeneutic lenses. The hypothesis mentioned above has been investigated by analyzing three cases in terms of the research questions based on Langs' (1978) classification of communication. The thesis described the difficulties inherent in collecting clinical data from psychologists working from within a psychoanalytic framework. Eventually three sets of therapy details and verbatim therapy transcripts were obtained, provided in the thesis and analyzed in terms of the research questions. However evidence for the success of the hypothesized alternate approach was not found in this research study. It was suggested that other possible methods might be useful to investigate the hypothesized approach further.

This study aimed to explore the countertransference responses of psychoanalytically informed psychotherapists working with religious patients. By elucidating the various responses that devout patients may provoke in psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists, it also sought to investigate how differences in religious orientation - which referred to atheistic, agnostic, theistic, or a combination of these metaphysical views – between patient and therapist may influence the nature of psychoanalytically informed psychotherapists’ countertransference responses to their religious patients. Thirdly, it endeavored to understand how psychoanalytically informed psychotherapists manage religiously influenced countertransference responses. A sample of six psychoanalytically informed psychotherapists participated in a self developed, semi-structured interview. A thematic content analysis of the psychotherapists’ interview transcripts revealed that the therapists’ countertransference responses to their religious patients were broadly negative, and primarily took the form of feelings of paralysis and frustration. Concerning the extent to which the therapists perceived that differences in religious orientation between themselves and their patients influenced the nature of their countertransference reactions, a key finding was that, while the theistic therapists generally noted these responses, the agnostic therapists seemed to give more attention to them during the interviews, while reflecting on the extent to which their agnosticism may partially account for the intensity of their countertransference paralysis and frustration. Most of the agnostic therapists, moreover, were able to identify early personal experiences that may have contributed to these responses. Thirdly, regarding the management of these countertransference responses, all the therapists alluded to the significance of supervision, colleagues and their own therapy. It was also found that the therapists’ countertransference reactions to their religious patients were partly a consequence of the therapists’ perspectives on what constitutes healthy and pathological religion, and perceived similarities between certain religio-mystical concepts and aspects of psychoanalytic thought. The study elucidates the complex interaction between various factors that conceivably influence the nature of psychoanalytic psychotherapists’ countertransference reactions to religious patients, as well as the necessity for therapist self-awareness when working with religious patients, with the broader aim of offering an example of an increasingly applied and relevant form of psychoanalytic praxis in a country with a diverse and inherently religious population.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-38).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-92).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-184).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-84).

Thesis (Ph. D. (Psychology))--Rhodes University, 2005. / "A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychotherapy" -T.p.

M.A. / It is widely known that countertransference that is not understood or managed can result in ineffective treatment, inaccurate diagnosis and premature termination of counselling by the client or student social worker. This dissertation seeks to answer the question: “How do social work students experience and manage countertransference with their clients in their counselling process in the absence of former knowledge of this phenomenon?” A qualitative, phenomenological research design was used. There were five participants in the study, all of whom were third year social work students at the University of Johannesburg. This study was exploratory in nature and used semi-structured interviews to expose the students‟ personal countertransference experiences with as much richness and depth as possible. The history of countertransference is outlined, followed by a review of how to understand and use this construct. The participating students‟ experience of unrecognised countertransference forms the data, from which a better understanding of this phenomenon is gained. It is observed throughout this study that the students were distressed by their countertransferential experience, which left them feeling overwhelmed and confused. Such a response is understandable, given that the students had inadequate knowledge of countertransference and therefore could not understand the dynamics of countertransference or effectively manage and utilise countertransference in counselling. Five themes emerge that are consistent with the prior literature on countertransference in the therapeutic milieu. Findings from this study may broaden insight on the various ways in which the lack of training and knowledge of managing countertransference affect the social work student-client dynamic. The study concludes that (1) countertransference clearly affects the counselling process, and when students have little former knowledge or understanding of countertransference, they often feel overwhelmed. (2) Students do struggle with their unmanaged countertransference, which produces feelings of incompetence and ineffectiveness. (3) The students showed ability and interest in understanding how their countertransference impacted on themselves and the counselling process. Supervision can be a helpful tool to foster openness and understanding, so that students can explore their countertransferential experience. (4) The need for education and training in management of countertransference in students‟ internship programme is critical. While more research is indicated, the results of this study provide a deeper understanding of countertransference, and the importance of teaching this phenomenon as part of undergraduate students‟ learning process.

The purpose of this study was to explore how personal therapy influences experienced psychodynamic psychotherapists’ ways of being clinicians, and, by implication, their professional development. A hermeneutic research method, which also drew upon aspects of grounded theory methodology, was therefore devised to explore and examine how personal therapy and professional practice relate to each other and to the therapist’s development, and to deepen this descriptive account into a more differentiated and theoretically viable understanding. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight psychodynamic psychotherapists who were working as clinicians and who were concurrently in therapy. Keeping the research objective in mind, a list of questions was developed from the interview material through which the data was re-read and edited. In accordance with the aims of the study, and as suggested by the results of the initial phase of the textual analysis, intersubjective theory, mainly that of Jessica Benjamin, was used to generate a conceptual framework through which the interview material was further interpreted. This foregrounded the shifting power distributions and the varying processes of identification between the treating therapists and the participants. The Jungian notion of the wounded healer was intersubjectively reconfigured as indicating a therapist whose (often unacknowledged) needs and vulnerabilities engender a proclivity to relate to patients as objects rather than subjects. The participants could all be described as having started out their professional lives as wounded healers. The effects of personal therapy on their clinical work were conceptualised in terms of increased abilities for subject-to-subject relating. These were linked to augmented capacities for reflective and symbolic thinking and an enhanced openness to the implicit, unformulated and opaque aspects of experiences in the therapeutic space. Finally an intersubjective model of personal therapy and development as a therapist was generated. It was concluded that because of the focus on the therapeutic relationship as the vehicle for change in psychodynamic psychotherapy, as well as the current increasing emphasis on the use of the therapist’s subjectivity, the therapist’s capacity to engage in and sustain subject-tosubject relating and, by implication, the therapist’s personal therapy, are of pivotal importance for all therapists doing the work of psychodynamic psychotherapy.

The aim of this study was to investigate vicarious trauma experienced by caregivers working with children in residential care, who were victims of sexual abuse or assault. The objectives of the study were to determine the occurrence of vicarious trauma among caregivers working with victims of sexual abuse or assault / to describe the experiences of caregivers working with children who were victims of sexual abuse / to describe the caregiver's experience of staff support within the facility.