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9781138899056.Pdf “The Unobtrusive Relational Analyst draws on the history of psychoanalysis so as to create its bright future. In its pages the contributions of Freud and British Object Relations theory open to the Relational Turn and to a model of 21st century practice that is integrative and innovative. Through multiple, extended vignettes Grossmark illustrates his clinical position of gentle presence with a remarkable openness and clarity, emphasizing the role of action in the talking cure and the importance of engagement in a process that takes patient and analyst, and will also take the reader, to undiscovered areas of psychic life and living. If this sounds different and new to you, you’re right, it is! Transcending parochial divisions, Grossmark creates from varied facets of analytic theory an elegant and eloquent original synthesis that is at once ‘in the tradition’ and its forward edge.” —Bruce Reis, Ph.D., NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, & the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research “In this wonderfully innovative book, Robert Grossmark shows us how to work with the most difficult patients we encounter, those whose words are empty, whose feelings are dead and who are unable to relate as whole objects or to make a life they can own. Calling on a wide variety of theories from many different schools of thought, Grossmark has woven a conceptual net that captures his unique way of ‘companioning’ these people whom he describes in such loving and dramatic detail. A companion is someone who travels along with you and shares your bread. I can think of no better companion for a deep psychoanalytic voyage than Robert Grossmark. This book should be a must read for anyone who works with these challenging patients.” —Sheldon Bach, Ph.D., Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychology, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis; Fellow, International Psychoanalytical Association “Grossmark’s original formulations about the therapeutic presence required of the analyst who meets primitive unformulated and unspeakable self states in his patients, reverberate in the consulting room long after reading. His clinical work is moving in its great receptivity, and inspiring freedom from the conventions of psychoanalytic technique of whatever school. For me, it courageously illustrates the radical attitude required of an analyst who truly leans on Bion’s act of faith and on Winnicott’s ‘living an experience together.’” —Michal Rieck, Training and Supervising Analyst, the Israel Psychoanalytic Society; Co-Founder and Co-Director, The Israel Winnicott Center, Tel Aviv “Robert Grossmark has written a fearlessly creative, profoundly important, and deeply moving account of the work of the ‘unobtrusive relational analyst.’ Many patients, he notes, are not helped by analysts who hang back until the proper interpretive moment. But many of those same patients don’t profit from the analyst’s more active engagement in the clinical relatedness, either. Grossmark finds his answer in therapeutic ‘companioning,’ an acceptance of the ‘flow of enactments’ that involves the analyst’s unobtrusive yet deeply involved emotional presence. Grossmark’s illustrations are always gripping, often downright thrilling. He is a brilliant clinical writer. Don’t miss this book.” —Donnel B. Stern, Training and Supervising Analyst at the William Alanson White Institute; Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychology, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis The Unobtrusive Relational Analyst Psychoanalysts increasingly find themselves working with patients and states that are not amenable to verbal and dialogic engagement. Such patients are challenging for a psychoanalytic approach that assumes that the patient relates in the verbal realm and is capable of reflective function. Both the classical stance of neutrality and abstinence and a contemporary relational approach that works with mutuality and intersubjectivity can often ask too much of patients. The Unobtrusive Relational Analyst introduces a new psychoanalytic register for working with such patients and states, involving a present and engaged analyst who is unobtrusive to the unfolding of the patient’s inner world and the flow of mutual enactments. For the unobtrusive relational analyst, the world and idiom of the patient becomes the defining signature of the clinical interaction and process. Rather than seeking to bring patients into greater dialogic relatedness, the analyst companions the patient in the flow of enactive engagement and into the damaged and constrained landscapes of their inner worlds. Being known and companioned in these areas of deep pain, shame and fragmentation is the foundation on which psychoanalytic transformation and healing rests. In a series of illuminating chapters that include vivid examples drawn from his work with individuals and with groups, Robert Grossmark illustrates the work of the unobtrusive relational analyst. He reconfigures the role of action and enactment in psychoanalysis and group analysis, and expands the understanding of the analyst’s subjectivity to embrace receptivity, surrender and companioning. Offering fresh concepts regarding therapeutic action and psychoanalytic engagement, The Unobtrusive Relational Analyst will be of great interest to all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists. Robert Grossmark is a psychoanalyst working with individuals, couples and groups in New York City. He is Adjunct Clinical Professor and Consultant at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. He teaches at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies; the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at the City College of New York and the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society. The Unobtrusive Relational Analyst Explorations in Psychoanalytic Companioning Robert Grossmark First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Robert Grossmark The right of Robert Grossmark to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Grossmark, Robert, author. Title: The unobtrusive relational analyst : explorations in psychoanalytic companioning / Robert Grossmark. Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Series: Relational perspectives book series ; v. 101 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017056381 (print) | LCCN 2017057233 (ebook) | ISBN 9781315708096 (Master) | ISBN 9781317481829 (Web PDF) | ISBN 9781317481812 (ePub) | ISBN 9781317481805 (Mobipocket/Kindle) | ISBN 9781138899056 (hbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138899063 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315708096 (ebk) Subjects: | MESH: Psychoanalytic Therapy | Psychotherapeutic Processes | Professional-Patient Relations | Empathy | Trust Classification: LCC RC480.5 (ebook) | LCC RC480.5 (print) | NLM WM 460.6 | DDC 616.89/14—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017056381 ISBN: 978-1-138-89905-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-89906-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-70809-6 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC For Carina, Tomas and Sophia Contents Prologue xi Acknowledgements xvi Introduction 1 PART I Psychoanalytic process 11 1 The unobtrusive relational analyst 13 2 The flow of enactive engagement 40 3 Psychoanalytic companioning 54 4 The eloquence of action: unobtrusive psychoanalytic companioning and the growth of mind and self 76 5 Enactment: the total situation 86 6 Everything happens at once: the emergence of symmetric enactment 106 7 The work of the narrative and enactive co-narration 125 x Contents PART II Group analysis 151 8 The Edge of Chaos: enactment, disruption, and emergence in group psychotherapy 153 9 Narrating the unsayable: enactment and the creation of meaning in group psychotherapy 175 10 The unobtrusive relational group analyst and enactive co-narration 190 Index 203 PrologueProloguePrologue It has always seemed to me that there is something potentially transfor- mational and healing in much human interaction. Life can be a series of confirmations that only support and consolidate what we already believe and anticipate, or life can offer new, unanticipated and even surprising experiences. All of our lives involve some blend of both of these tenden- cies, but our engagements with others are never neutral. There is never nothing happening between two or more people – neurologically, psycho- physiologically, or psychologically. Something is always going on. It could be said that the work of psychoanalysis is to harness that something that always goes on when people engage with each other in the service of healing and transformation. I state
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