Jill Savege Scharff

In The Interpersonal Unconscious, the Scharffs explore the construction and expression of the unconscious in interpersonal interaction. The authors draw from individual analysis, conjoint psychotherapy with families and couples, and from the use of group process in teaching. They introduce chaos theory applied to dynamical systems and South American theories of the link and the analytic field, now available in English. Advances in development, neuroscience, ethology, and attachment theory all contribute to their expanded view of the unconscious mind and its relationships. In turn, the Scharffs' view of the interpersonal unconscious revises current views of development, clinical theory, and unconscious psychic organization. The unconscious is not individual as Freud thought: It is fundamentally interpersonal at the same time that it feels intensely our own. We live in an unconscious field. Each of us contributes to it, and each is structured and enriched by it. We are social creatures, not only in our behaviors and interactions, but in the deepest recesses of our minds. We can no longer conceive of the unconscious as an individual property according to Freud's original topographic and structural theories. Even though the individual unconscious is unique, paradoxically it is also shared in reciprocal interactions with intimate partners, work groups, and social groups. In this state of mutual influence, our unconscious minds are constantly under construction across the life cycle.

Rising above the polemics surrounding sexual and physical abuse, David and Jill Savege Scharff bring a relational perspective to the integration of psychoanalytic and trauma theories in order to understand the effects of overwhelming physical and psychological trauma, including sexual abuse, injury, and birth defect. The Scharffs draw from their object relations therapy with individuals, families, and couples recovering from trauma and abundance of relevant clinical examples described in their characteristically personal and vivid style. Their treatment approach, influenced by Fairbairn, Klein, and Winnicott, is respectful of the patient's experience. They advise avoiding premature interpretations that impose their own reality on patients because this traumatizes them just as their abuser did. In order to work well with these traumatized people, the clinician must be able to tolerate ambiguity and sustain long term therapy, for it takes the patience of waiting and wondering to recover deeply repressed memories, explore them thoroughly, and evaluate their meaning and importance for the patient. The Scharffs' demonstration of clinical processes helps therapists contain their own countertransference to trauma so as to be fully present with their clients and consistently able to confront abuse patterns in society. The object relations approach not only deals with trauma's impact on the individual but views it in its cultural and interpersonal context as well. Society alternately emphasizes and ignores trauma so that an encapsulated traumatic experience festers until the next eruption, just as dissociative defenses segmentally protect and exaggerate traumatic experience in the individual case. The Scharffs review Kramer's Mahlerian approach, McDougall's insights into the silence of the psyche and the words of the soma, and Anzieu's elaboration of the body ego. They resuscitate Freud's seduction hypothesis and the traumatic basis of the repetition compulsion. They compare and contrast the concepts of re

In their groundbreaking A Primer of Object Relations, Jill Savege Scharff and David E. Scharff answered readers' questions about this burgeoning field in remarkably clear and readable prose. It is difficult to imagine any other team of authors who could provide such a comprehensive survey of the broad applications of object relations theory and in the second edition of this authoritative work, the Scharffs draw from their years of clinical experience to create an inclusive and up-to-date manual for object relations theory that is certain to become a classic in the field.

In this landmark book, David Scharff and Jill Savege Scharff, both psychoanalysts, develop a way of thinking about and working with the couple as a small group of two, held together as a tightly knit system by a commitment that is powerfully reinforced by the bond of mutual sexual pleasure.

In the last two decades, object relations theory has crossed the Atlantic and taken America by storm. The enthusiasm among American clinicians for the British School, however, has led to a host of problems related to the need to master a new terminology. The difficulty in assimilating object relations theory is one more example of the aphorism that America and England are two countries separated by a common language. The Scharffs have taken a giant step forward in assisting American therapists in their efforts to master the language of object relations theory. With this primer they have anticipated the reader's questions at every turn and have answered them in remarkably clear and readable prose. Terms like projective identification, holding, containment, and self are freed from obscurity and made entirely understandable to even the novice clinician. The authors then apply these concepts to a variety of clinical settings. The Scharffs are equally at home when doing individual, family, marital, group, or sex therapy. It is difficult to imagine any other team of authors who could provide such a comprehensive survey of the broad applications of object relations theory. Students in all the mental health professions will find this slim volume to be an extraordinarily useful introduction to the field.

In this landmark work on object relations, Dr. Jill Savage Scharff addresses the psychological processes of projective and introjective identification and countertransference. She carefully traces the debates about projective identification_the neurotic versus psychotic arguments and the intrapsychic versus interpersonal views. She holds that disagreements stem from unrecognized shifts in meaning of the term identification and unacknowledged differences of opinion as to where the identification takes place. For her, projective identification is an umbrella term for phenomena that can affect the self, the object inside the self, and the external object. Dr. Scharff brings fresh insight to the neglected concept of introjective identification and a new understanding of the therapeutic action of projective and introjective identification. The book's unique distinction is in the author's integration of object relations theory and practice, particularly with regard to the handling of countertransference. The clinical material is written in the vivid and personally candid style that is a hallmark of her work. Dr. Scharff demonstrates how to understand and utilize projective and introjective identification, making this work indispensable for every dynamically oriented therapist.

Offers an indepth and thoughtful exploration of the relevance of psychoanalysis to family therapy.

This is a short primer on object relations therapy. The content of the book derives from students' most frequently asked questions together with the Scharffs' responses. In an easy dialogue format, the Scharffs take readers beyond the forbidding aspects of theory and given them access to object relations therapy as a way of thinking and working that is easily understood and readily applicable to clinical practice.

Offers an indepth and thoughtful exploration of the relevance of psychoanalysis to family therapy.