Recognition: A Key for Understanding a Necessary Role of the Psychotherapist for the Successful Outcome of Psychotherapy

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to focus on an aspect of psychodynamic psychotherapy that includes psychoanalysis to illustrate the important element in the psychotherapeutic relationship called recognition. This involves an emotional sharing with the patient of the importance of particular life experiences that he has had and as such this not only cements the relationship but becomes the substrate of change and an internalization of the therapist that persists after the end of treatment. This interaction parallels the experience with a responsive mother able to echo the infant's experience. The experience of recognition is illustrated with 10 case presentations that demonstrate the power of this factor in a variety of patients ranging from brief consultations to psychoanalysis.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Milton Viederman

Milton Viederman, MD, received his bachelors degree from Columbia College and his MD from Harvard Medical School. His residency was at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (Columbia). He was trained in psychoanalysis at the Columbia Psychoanalytic Center where he became a training analyst. In 1975 he joined the faculty at Weill Cornell Medical College where he developed the consultation liaison service, and is now Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry.