Common Therapeutic Blunders

This revised, updated, and expanded edition of a classic primer of countertransference and counterresistance reflects changes in contemporary psychotherapy and new situations that face therapists. The clinical blunders, chosen to convey the interpsychic, intrapsychic, and human aspect of the therapeutic dyad, illustrate a variety of dilemmas in an accessible form, and they now also address how supervisors react to their own countertransferences. Countertransference and counterresistance are universal, and this edition, like its predecessor, makes an absolute case for therapists to undergo a real, personal analysis. The 101 examples of therapeutic blunders and 11 supervisory blunders are presented simply, dramatically and often humorously, so that therapists of all persuasions can understand them.

This revised, updated, and expanded edition of a classic primer of countertransference and counterresistance reflects changes in contemporary psychotherapy and new situations that face therapists. The clinical blunders, chosen to convey the interpsychic, intrapsychic, and human aspect of the therapeutic dyad, illustrate a variety of dilemmas in an accessible form, and they now also address how supervisors react to their own countertransferences.

Gerald Schoenewolf, Ph.D., is the founder and director of the Living Center in New York, a therapeutic cooperative for people in the arts. He is an adjunct professor of psychology at the New York Institute of Technology, Hunter College, and the Borough of Manhattan Community College as well as the author of 13 books.