Discussion of Judy Pickles's Case Presentation From the Perspective of Psychoanalytic Specificity Theory

Abstract

The author discusses Judy Pickles's case presentation against the backdrop of the principles of specificity theory. Psychoanalytic specificity theory reflects the view that the therapeutic process comprises the operation of a unique, complex, reciprocal relational system for each analyst–patient couple. It recognizes that what each therapist distinctively offers a particular patient includes, but also transcends, considerations of both theory and technique. The therapist's responses, which effectively draw on a rich palette of both verbal and nonverbal responsiveness to promote therapeutic effect, are determined by who the therapist is as well as who the patient is in the context of their interaction.

Specificity theory calls attention to the importance of improving the therapeutic fit between the analysand's particular therapeutic needs and the analyst's capacity to respond to them, simultaneously appreciating the limitations to optimal responsiveness that inevitably emerge within the specific analytic dyad.

Notes

¹I refer here to certain of Alexander's perspectives on the therapeutic process, not to his theory of psychosomatic specificity (see Bacal, 1990).

²For elaboration on the relevant work of predecessors to specificity theory, see Bacal, 1990; Bacal and Newman, 1990; and Bacal, 1998, 2006.

³In another analytic language (Shane, Shane, and Gales, 1997), effective working through of the repetitions of “old–old” relational configurations and of disruptions in “old–new” relational configurations paved the way for the engagement of “new–new” relational configurations.