The Technique and Practice of Psychoanalysis, 5: The Ralph R. Greenson Training Seminars, by Ralph R. Greenson, M.D.,
edited by Harry Polkinhorn, Ph.D., is now available on Amazon.
“Ralph Greenson was a gifted charismatic teacher of psychoanalytic technique, premiere in his generation. I and many other students of analysis had the privilege of learning from his clear yet scintillating seminars on dreams and clinical practice. The editor has done a major service to all mental health practitioners in providing these brilliant sparkling Greenson seminars, notes, and papers for our benefit.”
— Peter Loewenberg, Professor of History Emeritus, UCLA, Training and Supervising Analyst, Dean Emeritus New Center for Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles
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from “Introduction”
In this fifth in the series of the lectures, teaching seminars and writings, Dr. Greenson discusses the subjects of transference and empathy . . . Among other aspects Dr. Greenson discusses . . . how transference is acted on both in the analytic setting and outside of it. The erotic nature of transference is conveyed not only through words but also through dress, facial expressions and position on the couch, among others.
Although obviously a highly skilled practitioner of psychoanalysis, Dr. Greenson openly acknowledges the humility necessary to do analytic work and the awareness on the part of the analyst of the inevitable experience of uncertainty, countertransference and mistakes.
Perhaps his thinking on empathy is even more revealing and useful than his thoughts about transference. The ability of the analyst to empathize, to put himself or herself in the shoes of the patient, is an absolutely essential capacity to understand transference. In exquisite detail and sensitivity Dr. Greenson connects transference and empathy by describing the role empathy plays in the dosage, timing, and tact of transference interpretations.
Anyone who enjoys watching a master of his craft at work will want to read the first four volumes and anticipate the ones yet to come.
— Calvin Colarusso, M.D., Training and Supervising Analyst, San Diego Psychoanalytic Center
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My special thanks to my colleagues at SDPC who have made it possible for me to edit the previously unpublished papers in the Ralph R. Greenson Archive of the San Diego Psychoanalytic Center, from which these volumes are drawn.
