Therapeutic Action

A Guide to Psychoanalytic Therapy

This book advances a new understanding of producing change in psychotherapy. It proposes the concept of interaction structure, repeated mutually influencing interactions between therapist and patient that are a fundamental aspect of therapeutic action. Interaction structures allow consideration of both the intrapsychic and the interpersonal by recognizing the intrapsychic as an important basis for what occurs in clinical interaction. This book clarifies the process of therapy, and is a guide to the practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Using transcripts of clinical sessions, Dr. Enrico E. Jones offers an unusual window on the interactive structures that actually occur between patient and therapist and identifies specific interventions that successfully promote change.