Between Therapist and Client: The New Relationship (A Series of Books in Psychology) - Softcover

Michael D. Kahn

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9780716721949: Between Therapist and Client: The New Relationship (A Series of Books in Psychology)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0716721945 ISBN 13: 9780716721949

Publisher: W. H. Freeman & Company, 1991

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During the last forty years American psychotherapists have been relationship. Psychoanalysts have maintained that therapists should be cool and neutral; humanists have advocated a warm, engaged relationship. From Michael Kahn's point of view, something crucial has been lost on both sides of the debate. Now, a new consensus seems to be emerging. This book looks at the nature of that consensus and why it has become possible.

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About the Author:

Michael Kahn received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Harvard University. A professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz, he presently maintains a private practice and also trains psychotherapists as the director of a counseling center at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He is the author of The Tao of Conservation.

Review:

Perhaps the most important aspect of the therapeutic process is the relationship between therapist and client. For years, two major schools of thought have strongly disagreed about what the nature of that relationship should be. The humanists emphasized warmth and empathy. The psychoanalysts kept a neutral, cool distance. Recently, however, the beginnings of a reconciliation between these traditions have opened new possibilities for the way therapists relate to clients.

In Between Therapist and Client, Michael Kahn shows why this new consensus is promising. Beginning with Freud's discovery of transference, Kahn traces the history of the clinical relationship from Carl Rogers' introduction of humanistic concerns through Merton Gill's theory and technique of transference analysis, to the pioneering work of Heinz Kohut, who has most successfully brought together psychoanalytic and humanistic thought. Using vivid examples from his own practice, Kahn shows how a coherent synthesis of these various approaches leads to the most successful clinical relationships.

Completely updated with greater discussion of ethics and countertransference, the new edition of Between Therapist and Client is essential reading for those in psychotherapy both therapist and client. -- Book Description

This book unravels the 'action' of therapy. Kahn brings the subtle essentials of therapy relationships to the foreground where they belong. His unpretentious and skillful writing makes the connection between therapy and practice accessible to the curious lay reader. -- Gerald Goodman, author of The Talk Book

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