Abstract
This article explores Alfred Lorenzer's notion of scenic understanding through a conflict that beset a data-interpretation panel, part of a study evaluating a programme of psychodynamic therapy for drug-addicted young people. A second interpretation panel, formed in the wake of the first group's collapse, came to understand this conflict as a ‘counter-transference’ to the latent meaning present in the case on which the first panel had been working. This insight, in turn, gave rise to a new understanding of the case itself, in particular the possibility that the interviewee had made less progress in her therapy than appeared to be so.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cartwright, D. (2004) The psychoanalytic research interview: Preliminary suggestions. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 52 (1): 209–242.
Devereux, G. (1967) From Anxiety to Method in the Behavioral Sciences. The Hague: Paris Mouton.
Frosh, S. and Baraitser, L. (2008) Psychoanalysis and psychosocial studies. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society 13 (4): 346–365.
Hollway, W. and Jefferson, T. (2000) Doing Qualitative Research Differently: Free Association, Narrative and the Interview Method. London: Sage.
Lorenzer, A. (1974) Die Wahrheit der psychoanalytischen Erkenntnis: Ein historisch-materialistischer Entwurf. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp.
Lorenzer, A. (1977) Sprachspiel und Interaktionsformen: Vorträge und Aufsätze zu Psychoanalyse, Sprache und Praxis. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp.
Lorenzer, A. (1986) Tiefenhermeneutische Kulturanalysen. In: A. Lorenzer (ed.) Kulturanalysen: Psychoanalytische Studien zur Kultur. Frankfurt/M.: Fischer, pp. 11–98.
Lorenzer, A. (2002) Die Sprache, der Sinn, das Unbewußte: Psychoanalytisches Grundverständnis und Neurowissenschaften. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.
Marks, S. and Mönnich-Marks, H. (2003) The analysis of counter-transference reactions is a means to discern latent interview-contents. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung [Forum: Qualitative Social Research] 4 (2): 1–13, also http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0302361, accessed March 30, 2010.
Mitchell, S. (2000, 2003) Relationality: From Attachment to Intersubjectivity. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
Morgenroth, C. (2010) Die dritte Chance: Therapie und Gesundung von jugendlichen Drogenabhängigen. Wiesbaden: VS – Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Ogden, T.H. (1994) The analytic third: Working with intersubjective clinical facts. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 75 (3): 3–19.
Rosenthal, G. (1995) Erlebte und erzählte Lebensgeschichte: Gestalt und Struktur Biographischer Selbstbeschreibungen. Frankfurt/M.: Campus.
Schütze, F. (1976) Zur Hervorlockung und Analyse von Erzählungen thematisch relevanter Geschichten im Rahmen soziologischer Feldforschung. In: Arbeitsgruppe Bielefelder Soziologen (ed.) Kommunikative Sozialforschung. München: Wilhelm Fink, pp. 159–260.
Stein, H.F. (2000) From countertransference to social theory: A study of Holocaust thinking in US business dress. Ethos 28 (3): 346–378.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Morgenroth, C. The research relationship, enactments and ‘counter-transference’ analysis: On the significance of scenic understanding. Psychoanal Cult Soc 15, 267–280 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1057/pcs.2010.11
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/pcs.2010.11