Boundaries and boundary violations in psychoanalysis

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.