Richard Tuch, “Psychoanalytic Method in Motion” (Routledge, 2017)

Richard Tuch is an analyst in Los Angeles who specializes in writing and teaching about psychoanalytic technique. In this book, he succinctly reviews a number of major historic controversies regarding technique, fairly presenting both sides and arguing that psychoanalytic practice tends to evolve toward a middle ground after the pendulum swings too far in favor of an overvalued idea.

Tuch was trained as a modern ego psychologist but he is steeped in other schools as well, especially British Object Relations, the Middle School, and the Relational School. He is well-versed in the literature about mentalization, theory of mind, and meta-cognition. In Psychoanalytic Method in Motion: Controversies and Evolution in Clinical Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2017), he covers debates concerning free association, transference interpretations, enactment, empathy, the analysts authority, and the scientific evidence for psychoanalysis. His writing is lucid, accessible to a lay audience, open-minded, and solidly based in the reality of the day-to-day interactions between analysts and patients. While he is unabashedly pluralistic and multi-lingual in terms of psychoanalytic theory, he is not afraid to disclose his biases and personal conclusions about where a contemporary analyst can confidently stand.

Philip Lance, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist with a private practice in Los Angeles. He is candidate at The Psychoanalytic Center of California. He can be reached at PhilipJLance@gmail.com.

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