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Reconsidering Therapeutic Neutrality

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Abstract

In recent decades, with the emergence of postmodern philosophies and of relational psychoanalysis, therapeutic neutrality has come under challenge as being both an impossible and an undesirable analytic stance. This article explores recent understandings of transference and of therapeutic neutrality; the position of those relational psychoanalysts who posit that explicit use of intersubjectivity is the central treatment vehicle of psychoanalysis; and presents material from the treatment of an individual with a borderline personality disorder, using the developmental, self, and object relations approach of James Masterson, to illustrate some potential dangers of abandoning a neutral stance when treating such clients.

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Notes

  1. Some patients with personality disorders cannot tolerate such direct challenge to their self-representation and require a different intervention. For example, narcissistic patients require an intervention that combines mirroring with interpretation of defense.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 347 Fifth Avenue, Room 1401, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Jerry S. Katz

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  1. Jerry S. Katz
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Correspondence to Jerry S. Katz.

Additional information

The author wishes to thank his colleagues on the faculty of the Masterson Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for their assistance: Dr. Judith Pearson, Dr. Murray Schane, Carolyn Bankston, Amanda Cassidy, Loray Daws, and William Griffiths.

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Katz, J.S. Reconsidering Therapeutic Neutrality. Clin Soc Work J 38, 306–315 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-010-0272-7

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