object relations couple therapy family therapy institutes of firenze and treviso david e. scharff,...
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Object Relations Couple Therapy
Family Therapy Institutes of Firenze and Treviso
David E. Scharff, M.D. Jill Savege Scharff, M.D.
International Psychotherapy Institute
The Psychosomatic Partnership
SOMATIC PARTNERSHIP (with large psychic component)
PSYCHOSOMATIC PARTNERSHIP
(evenly balanced)
PSYCHOLOGICAL PARTNERSHIP
(with varying somatic component)
Dicks 1967
Projective Identification in MarriagePerceptions of the spouse occur “as if the spouse were part of oneself. The partner is then treated according to how this aspect of oneself was valued:spoilt and cherished, or denigrated and persecuted.”
Dicks 1967
Joint Marital Personality“This joint personality or integrate enabled each half to rediscover lost aspects of their primary object relations, which they had split off or repressed, and which they were, in their involvement with the spouse, re-experiencing by projective identification.”
Bion
• Theory of Unconscious Life of Groups
• “Container/Contained” Model of Projective Identification
• Interpersonal Origin of Mind
MODELS OF THERAPY
Transference andCountertransference in Couple Therapy
Matching the Therapist’s Internal Objects
• Organizes the experience beyond what makes intellectual or conscious sense
• Unconscious communication occurs when there is resonance with therapist’s internal objects
• The action of projective and introjective identification in the therapeutic setting
Two Forms of Transference
•Focus
•Context
Contextual Transference Transference to the mother’s holding capacity for the infant. Life goes on within the sphere of being cared for and understood by the mother.•Contextual Countertransference
Therapist feels taken for granted as an understanding parent if transference is (+). Therapist feels treated generally as non-understanding parent if transference is (-).
Focused Transference Transference stemming from the patient’s internal object relations, the relatively discrete self and object images.
•Focused Countertransference Therapist feels treated as discrete parts of patient’s inner world.
Racker (1968)
CountertransferenceA fundamental condition of receiving the patient’s projections and tolerating them inside as projective identifications.
Segal 1981
Countertransference:Nonverbal constant interaction in which the patient acts on the analyst’s mind.
Jill Scharff 1992
• Countertransference enables us to detect the problem
• Countertransference is the medium for its resolution
Bion
Negative capability:
Being without memory or desire
Geography of Transference
Containment
Individual // Family // Therapist
Geography of Transference
• Containment• Space
Here There
• Time Now Past: Back-Then
Future: If-and-When
• Type of Transference Contextual
Focused
A Compass for Navigating Transference and Countertransference
Countertransference inFamily & Couple Therapy
• Reflects therapist’s role as providing the holding context to the family or couple
• Resonates with the therapist’s internal couple & family
• Arises as therapist meets the family or couple at its boundary, arising from the experience of taking in family’s shared projective identifications
David E. Scharff &Jill Savege Scharff © 2005 References
Scharff, D. E. and Scharff, J. S. (1991). Object Relations Couple Therapy. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
Scharff J. S. and Scharff, D. E. (1994). Object Relations Therapy of Physical and Sexual Trauma. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
Scharff, J. S. and Scharff, D. E. (1998). Object Relations Individual Therapy. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
Scharff, D.E. and Scharff, J.S. (In Press) Treating Relationships. Jason Aronson.
International Psychotherapy
Institute
David E. ScharffJill Savege Scharff
© 2005