Boundaries and Boundary Violations in Psychoanalysis

The first edition of Boundaries and Boundary Violations in Psychoanalysis, published 20 years ago, was groundbreaking in addressing a subject that was at that time considered taboo. This new, thoroughly revised edition contains a wealth of new material, reflecting the current knowledge and evolving attitudes about boundary violations. The volume, which is based on the author's 30 years of experience evaluating, treating, and consulting on more than 300 cases of professional boundary violations, is essential reading for psychoanalysts, residents, training directors, therapists, and other mental health professionals. Perhaps the most obvious form of boundary violation is sexual, and the author examines how these situations develop, how they destroy the analytic relationship, and how different types of analysts transgress boundaries for different motives, both unconscious and conscious. Other forms of boundary violations (for example, nonsexual and supervisory), are also addressed, including a fascinating and instructive chapter on cyber violations, a type of boundary violation that could not have been predicted 20 years ago. Beautifully written and meticulously referenced, Boundaries and Boundary Violations in Psychoanalysis is an exhaustive, utterly current examination of a critically important topic and represents a vital contribution to the psychoanalytic literature. Boundaries and Boundary Violations in Psychoanalysis is a state-of-the-art overview of the problem of boundary violations in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. This new edition is a major overhaul of the seminal first edition, published 20 years ago, and addresses topics with which every psychoanalyst, therapist, resident, and training director should be conversant. Penned by one of the foremost experts on psychoanalysis, the book is both broad and thorough in scope, presenting models of prevention to help readers avoid boundary problems in their practices and providing expert advice on institutional responses to complaints and rumors. In addition, the impact of boundary violations on patients is examined, a long-neglected and overdue exploration that encourages increased institutional responsiveness to victims'needs. The book was designed to inform and forearm, with chapters and features that psychoanalysts and therapists will find eminently useful: • The fear that the patient may commit suicide and how that fear may play a role in the development of boundary violations warrants a separate chapter therapists will find illuminating.• Boundaries in cyberspace, a topic only recently pertinent, is explored in depth in a chapter that provides guidance on how the therapeutic frame has been broadened by the impact of texting, email, googling, and social media.• Detailed guidelines on how to handle complaints are included, information that will prepare organizations to respond both strategically and compassionately to these complex situations.• Examples and cases are based on those the author has encountered over 30 years of evaluating, treating, and consulting and reflect the diversity of clinical practice, involving both male and female violators as well as victims and their families.• Boundary violations do not always include a sexual relationship, and the types of boundary violations discussed include nonsexual, supervisory, and post-termination. Every chapter has been updated to include new data and current understanding, addressing the most critically important topics in a rigorous, yet humane manner. Boundaries and Boundary Violations in Psychoanalysis is the most authoritative resource on the subject, and will help the reader manage boundaries across a variety of therapeutic contexts. In this volume, Glen O. Gabbard and Eva P. Lester take on the delicate and crucial issue of boundaries in psychoanalysis. With clarity and balance, Boundaries and Boundary Violations in Psychoanalysis develops linkages between the psychoanalytic literature on intrapsychic boundaries and the newer literature and analytic boundaries between patient and analyst. The authors trace the work of Freud, Tausk, Federn, Jacobson, Hartmann, and others. They show how key psychoanalytic concepts, old and new, expand our understanding of the analytic frame and serve to create a context for the emergence of "the analytic object.". Gabbard and Lester map out professional boundary violations in the practice of psychoanalysis and discuss the early history of such transgressions, illustrating the influence of figures such as Jung, Ferenczi, and Ernest Jones. They then provide a psychoanalytic understanding of sexual boundary violations, using detailed cases, and devote a chapter to nonsexual boundary violations and the link to enactments. They open up discussions of post-termination boundaries and the role of boundaries in psychoanalytic supervision. The final chapter addresses practical strategies for coping with serious boundary violations. Gabbard and Lester illustrate preventive techniques, approaches to assessment and rehabilitation, and transference/countertransference difficulties. For clinicians and psychoanalytic institutes treating individuals who have transgressed professional boundaries, or for any therapist giving serious consideration to ethical issues in treatment, this solid and daring book will help them chart a new course for the practice of psychoanalysis.