Couples and Family Psychoanalytical Therapy Models

IPI’s way of working

At the International Psychotherapy Institute, psychoanalytic couple and family therapy is interpreted theoretically through object relations theory as formulated by Fairbairn, Klein, Winnicott, Bion and Bowlby, and more recently elaborated by Bollas, Mitchell, Kernberg, and Scharff and Scharff. Clinical work with families derives from the analytic principles of listening for unconscious meaning, following affect, and working interpretively by drawing on transference and countertransference patterns. This is augmented by close attention to the interactive patterns of couples and families, especially to the way these convey mutual projective identification. Recent contributions from the research fields of attachment theory, neuroscience and chaos theory have added to our theoretical and clinical base to form an evolving open systems, psychoanalytic way of working. The most recent formulations of these ideas are published in NEW PARADIGMS FOR TREATING RELATIONSHIPS, (2006) Jill Savege Scharff and David Scharff, Editors: Lanham Maryland: Jason Aronson. See also books by David and Jill Scharff, OBJECT RELATIONS FAMILY THERAPY (1987), OBJECT RELATIONS COUPLE THERAPY (1991) and THE PRIMER OF OBJECT RELATIONS THERAPY (2005), all published by Jason Aronson.