Interpretive Voices

The contributions in this book exemplify ways in which different analysts think about and treat the issue of interpretation, illustrating the distinctiveness with which an analyst expresses his or her own personality, creativity, and understanding within the medium of psychoanalysis. Entering the realm of the philosophical concept of the particularised universal in which the general concept finds its expression not in abstraction but only in its particular manifestation, each analyst construes the theories and body of knowledge of psychoanalysis in his or her own way.The editors believe that the analytic process can embrace not only different theoretical views, but also differences in how we listen to and communicate with our patients, the expressions of which create an analytic climate with its own particular diction, vocabulary, and distinctive voice. The individual voice is implicit in the literature, capable of being demonstrated, and an important factor in the analytic process.This is a book about the practice of psychoanalysis and the interaction between two personalities, illustrating the interpretive voices of its ten authors, their analytic methods, their thinking and responses to their patients, and how they convey their understanding whilst remaining authentic. The psychoanalytic practitioner and the specialist reader will find the contributions enhance their understanding of the interpretive process in psychoanalysis as it is practised in the UK today.

Jean Arundale is a training and supervising analyst for the British Psychoanalytic Association (BPA) and the British Psychotherapy Foundation. In the BPA, she served for five years as Chair of the Scientific Committee and a member of the Board. She is a former editor of the 'British Journal of Psychotherapy'. She is primarily in private practice but also works part-time as a consultant psychotherapist in the NHS, heading a psychodynamic psychotherapy service at Guy's Hospital. She has presented papers at University College London and European Psychoanalytical Federation conferences, and has taught, published, and edited variously in the field of psychoanalysis. Debbie Bandler Bellman is a psychoanalyst and child and adolescent psychotherapist, in private practice. She is a Full Member of the British Psychoanalytic Association (BPA) and a member of the BPA Board, formerly as Honorary Secretary and currently as Chair of the Scientific Committee. She also serves on the Training Committee and teaches on the psychoanalysis training. She is a training analyst of the Association of Child Psychotherapists and a supervisor for the British Psychotherapy Foundation's child and adolescent psychotherapy training. She has published a number of papers, and is a past editor of the 'Journal of Child Psychotherapy', and has also co-edited two books with Jean Arundale.