‘Characters’ in psychoanalytic and interpersonal therapy: A comparison

1. Some details of the patients described in this paper have been changed to preserve confidentiality.

Abstract

In this paper the author considers how the therapist might listen to the characters talked about by his or her patients. In psychoanalytic therapy the emphasis is on listening to the patient's characters as though they are located in psychic reality and as representatives of the transference relationship, whereas in interpersonal therapy (IPT) the patient's characters are taken as inhabiting the realm of external reality. It is argued that clinical thinking in IPT would be enhanced by taking more account of psychic reality, which will make clearer the quality of external reality in which the patient's characters are located. It is also argued that both therapies share an interest in enabling the patient to find characters which can serve as holograms of previously unexpressed affective experience.

Keywords:

• characters
• interpersonal therapy
• psychoanalytic therapy
• realms of reality

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisees who have generously given permission for me to use material from their work and their supervision with me.

Notes

1. Some details of the patients described in this paper have been changed to preserve confidentiality.