THE MASTERSON GROUP, P.C.

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
of the Personality Disorders

Descriptions of Books by James F. Masterson, M.D.

COUNTERTRANSFERENCE AND PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUE

In his earlier works, Masterson has presented his integrated developmental theory of borderline pathology and demonstrated his clinical approach. Now this volume explores the vicissitudes of working with borderline patients on a daily basis - the knotty problems of differential diagnosis, of managing countertransference with acting-out patients, and of keeping the total process in mind while grappling with immediate setbacks - as well as many other issues.

The setting is a teaching seminar where therapists bring up the common but difficult problems of managing countertransference and psychotherapeutic technique. Masterson, as supervisor, candidly reacts to case presentations and to questions raised by the therapists in the group. Many of these questions touch upon issues that concern all psychotherapists, not just those working with borderlines. Borderline patients are especially challenging, since they are often experts at evoking countertransference reactions that enable them to avoid the intrapsychic nature of their conflict. Consequently, therapists will find Masterson's exploration of these issues both reassuring and clinically valuable.

Each of the first three sections is organized around the presentation of one case. Although the patient's treatment provides the content of the discussion, the focus is on the therapist - what he or she hears, reports, thinks, and feels and how he or she acts.

A regular sequence emerges in chapters, as the therapist's countertransference and its effect on treatment are identified and Masterson guides him or her through the process of managing countertransferential reactions, making appropriate clinical observations, and then organizing those observations into a hierarchy according to the principles of developmental object-relations theory.

Patterns emerge from which the therapist and supervisor formulate hypotheses as to why, when and how to intervene, as well as what response to anticipate.

Although countertransference is a theme throughout, each section of this volume emphasizes different clinical issues: the first, vicissitudes of countertransference; the second, the establishment of a therapeutic alliance, and the third, the diagnosis and management of the lower-level borderline. The final section presents two cases of clinical evaluation - one of a borderline patient with somatic symptoms as a reprise, and one of a sociopathic personality as a caution.

The practical value of the volume is enhanced by special features, in particular the listing of clinical issues at the beginning of each chapter, the chapter summaries giving Masterson's perspective, and the Clinical Therapeutic Issues Index.

Through case presentations, this volume offers a detailed clinical illustration of a comprehensive, orderly, coherent developmental psychotherapeutic approach to the borderline patient. It invites the reader to take part in a unique supervisory and learning experience.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James F. Masterson, M.D., is founder and director of the Masterson Group and Masterson Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in New York City. He is also the founding father of The Society of Adolescent Psychiatry and past president of its New York Chapter. He is the author of a dozen books, including The Search for the Real Self (1988), The Emerging Self (1991), and Disorders of the Self (1995). Several of his books are required reading in courses throughout the country, and many have been translated into other languages. He has also written numerous articles and papers for leading journals both here and abroad.

Dr. Masterson maintains a private practice and is Clinical Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University.