Beyond the blank screen: The transformation of the analytic attitude in the discourse of American psychoanalytic technique since 1975.

The theory and practice of American psychoanalysis have changed in the last twenty years, in a general shift away from the assumptions and practices of the traditional, classical model. The areas of theory most affected center around the two-person nature of the treatment situation and the related questions of power and authority that it raises, and the subjective experience of the analyst and its role in the treatment. Clinical discourse on technique has undergone a shift in what might be thought of as tone or sensibility that corresponds to these changes in theoretical emphasis. The discourse of psychoanalytic technique is approached with an eye to its function as a professional self-portrait--both expressing and constructing the contemporary analytic attitude. This discourse is explored in order to question the extra-intellectual origins of the newer preoccupations and concerns. The early chapters present aspects of the history of psychoanalysis in the United States pertaining to the development of a distinctive American style of theorizing and practicing. The contemporary crises of the profession in the last two decades are also presented, with a focus on the practical economic and political difficulties that left the field ripe for a revision of professional self-representation. Subsequent chapters describe and interrogate the theory of technique in mainstream American psychoanalysis. Themes implicit in this discourse are identified and explored, including the ideals of emotional mutuality and intellectual egalitarianism, the valuing of the analyst's self-expression and individuality, and the importance attached to a rejection of the classical model of the blank screen. Debates about psychoanalytic epistemology and analytic stance are explored in terms of their rhetorical and self-representational functions. The final chapters connect these themes in clinical discourse to wider trends in American culture and society, particularly the declining esteem for professional authority, the rise of a self-ethic, and shifts in gender role expectations. This exploration of the extra-clinical factors shaping theory-construction is intended to create a more sophisticated and critical frame in which innovations in psychoanalysis can be formulated, presented and received.Ph.D.PsychologyScience historySocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129662/2/9542984.pd