Hidden conversations : an introduction to communicative psychoanalysis

Acknowledgements. Foreword by Robert Langs, MD. Introduction. 1: Seduction. 2: The Distorting Mirror. 3: An Unimaginable Substratum. 4: Some Pioneers. 5: Psychotherapy Exposed. 6: HIdden Conversations. 7: The Limit Situation. 8: The Technique of Communicative Sessions. 9: Two Communicative Sessions. 10: Towards a New Science of Psychoanalysis. Notes. References. Communicative Bibliography.

The communicative approach to psychoanalytic therapy, pioneered in the 1970s by Robert J. Langs, an American analyst, has aroused much controversy among analysts. Langs implies that psychotherapy is often harmful, with the words of a patient unconsciously revealing an unsatisfactory experience to the analyst. He raises many questions which analytical practitioners find hard to accept or resolve. "Hidden Conversations" introduces Langs' radical reinterpretation of psychoanalysis by presenting and expanding his ideas in new and accessible ways. It is an account of the theories underlying Langs' approach, placing them within the context of the history of psychoanalysis and showing, for example, that Freud nearly "discovered" the communicative approach in the late 1890s and that in the 1930s Ferenczi also anticipated the approach. David Livingston Smith illustrates the communicative approach with a wealth of practical, clinical examples, including verbatim accounts of communicative psychoanalytical sessions and a commentary on the unconscious processes underlying them. He also explores the philosophical underpinnings of psychoanalysis. This book should be of interest to professionals in analysis, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.