The Couch, Its Use and Meaning in Psychotherapy

“You can’t imagine how staggering it is
To rediscover the power of the couch –
What lies behind one’s eyelids once closed
Against the daylight trivialities”

Shevrin, 2003, p. 243


“It suddenly hit me that everybody in the world knows that when
you talk to people, you talk face-to-face – except psychoanalysts.
… So we decided to get rid of the couches.”

Cummings by Irvin Yalom, 2009.

Aus einer Besprechung des Buches

"For many American psychoanalysts the couch is the default position used with all analytic patients. This paper reviews empirical studies of the relation between the patient's position, sitting or lying, and free association. Findings are inconsistent; the patient's position may have an effect in some dyads and not in others. There have been no studies of a possible relationship between the patient's position and therapeutic outcome. Therefore, there is no empirical foundation for putting all analytic patients on the couch. We propose that selection of a position for the patient requires a careful, empathic, flexible, clinical judgment by the analyst, including consideration of the analyst's own theory, as well as of the patient's personality characteristics and diagnosis."

Abstract der von J. Thomas Schachter und Horst Kächele in 2010 verfassten Besprechung des Buches, die in der Ztschr. Contemp Psychoanal 46(3), Seiten 439-459, veröffentlicht wurde.

Aus dem Inhalt

• Foreword
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Cultural Influences on the Use of the Couch
• 3. The Significance of the Couch in Humor
• 4. The Couch as a Symbol of the Posed Threats of Psychoanalysis
• 5. The History of the Use of the Couch: Developments in Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice
• 6. The Theory of Repression as Applied to the Couch
• 7. The Recumbent Position and Its Relation to Sleep
• 8. The Use of the Couch to Facilitate Relaxation and the Expression of Feelings
• 9. Technique in Using the Recumbent Position
• 10. The Relation of the Couch to the Goals of Treatment
• Appendix
• References
• Index

Erhaltungszustand

Im Klassischen Fachantiquariat der SFB ist dieser inzwischen nur schwer zu findende Titel als sehr gut erhaltenes Exemplar mit dem Original Schutzumschlag verfügbar; im Textteil ist diese Ausgabe sehr gut erhalten, mit Namenseintrag und Bleistiftvermerk an dem vorderen und hinteren Löschblatt.