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Book launch

Dr. Steven Kochuk, talks with Prof. Aner Guvrin and Dr. Sharon Ziv Beyman about his new book:

by Steven Kuchuck (Confer, 2021)

Stephen Kochuk's book describes one of the most influential contemporary approaches to psychoanalysis—the referential approach. In this concise yet comprehensive book, Kochuk reviews the core theory as well as the latest trends in referential psychoanalysis.

In an eloquent style, he describes universal features of referential psychoanalysis such as dialectical movement between the intrapersonal and interpersonal, intersubjectivity, the subjectivity of the analyst, the multiple self, self-disclosure, expression in action, dissociation, and trauma. Clinical examples illustrate the theoretical material.

Koçuk goes even further than other reference writers in the honest way he speaks to his readers. He speaks freely about his vulnerabilities, needs, and desires as a therapist. He candidly discusses the therapist's need to be loved by his patients without disguising it as "transferential love": "How can the patient's love not arouse our narcissistic needs?" he asks.

But Koçuk is also a very careful therapist. For example, he encourages therapists to always think about their deep motivations before and during self-disclosure. In his article “Do ask, Do tell” (2009), he describes a patient, a married man who does not want children, who is eager to know whether Koçuk has children, but wants Koçuk to share this information only if they are similar. Koçuk hesitates, but ultimately decides not to share this information.

With another patient whose mother in some way resembles Kochuk's mother, he decides, again after much deliberation, to resort to what he calls "silent self-disclosure." Instead of telling the patient about his mother, her image comes to mind, and an experience of sadness overwhelms him. The direct effect is that the therapist and the patient feel connected to each other again.

Steven Kochuk, along with Aner Guvrin and Sharon Ziv Beyman, will hold a lively dialogue that will address questions such as: Is the referential approach a sensitivity or a technique? What are the challenges inherent in defining and learning referential psychoanalysis? What does referential work mean? We will also discuss the impact of the MeToo movement and the coronavirus pandemic on patients and therapists, and referential perspectives on expression in action.

Dr. Stephen Kochuk is a senior editor (formerly editor-in-chief) of the journal Psychoanalytic Perspectives.

Co-editor of the Relational Perspectives Book Series published by Routledge, past president of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP), faculty of the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, and board member, supervisor, faculty, at NIP, and faculty/instructor at the NIP National Training Program, Stephen Mitchell Research Center for Relational Psychoanalysis and other institutes.

Dr. Kochuk lectures in the United States and other countries, primarily on the clinical impact of therapist subjectivity.

In 2015 and 2016, he won the Gradiva Prize for Best Psychoanalytic Book: Clinical Implications of the Psychoanalyst's Life Experience: When the Personal Becomes Professional and The Legacy of Sandor Ferenczi: From Ghost to Ancestor (co-edited with Adrienne Harris).

A guide and therapist in Manhattan.

The meeting will take place on Sunday, August 22, 2021 at 7:30 PM.

The meeting will be held in English.

To purchase the book at a 20 percent discount, enter the link and enter the discount code MIFRASIN20:

https://www.karnacbooks.com/product/the-relational-revolution-in-psychoanalysis-and-psychotherapy/95397/