Lawrence E Hedges

We have long known that physical and emotional intimacy diminish during the course of long-term relationships. This book deals with the questions, "Why romance fades over time?" And "What can we do about it?" Relational psychologists, neuropsychologists, and anthropologists have devoted the last two decades to the study of these questions with never before available research tools. It is now clear that we are genetically predisposed to search out intersubjective intimacy from birth but that cultural systems of child rearing seriously limit our possibilities for rewarding interpersonal relationships. Anthropological and neurological data suggests that over time we have been essentially a serially monogamous species with an extraordinary capacity for carving out new destinies for ourselves. How can we come to grips with our genetic and neurological heritage while simultaneously transcending our relational history in order to create and sustain exciting romance and nurturing love in long-term relationships? Making Love Last surveys research and theory suggesting that indeed we have the capacity and the means of achieving the lasting love we long for in our committed relationships.

The sea-change in our understanding of neurobiology, infant research, and interpersonal/relational psychology over the past two decades makes clear that we are first and foremost a relational species. This finding has massive implications for the relational processes involved in teaching and supervising psychotherapy. Clinical theory and technique can be taught didactically. But relationship can only be learned through careful attention to the supervisory encounter itself. This advanced text surveys the psychodynamic and relational processes involved in psychotherapy and supervision.

Sex in Psychotherapy takes a psychodynamic approach to understanding recent technological and theoretical shifts in the field of psychotherapy. Lawrence Hedges provides an expert overview and analysis of a wide variety of new perspectives on sex, sexuality, gender, and identity; new theories about sex’s role in therapy; and new discoveries about the human brain and how it works. Therapists will value Hedges’s unique insights into the role of sexuality in therapy, which are grounded in the author’s studies of neurology, the history of sexuality, transference, resistance, and countertransference. Clinicians will also appreciate his provocative analyses of influential perspectives on sex, gender, and identity, and his lucid, concrete advice on the practice of therapeutic listening.

Sex in Psychotherapy takes a psychodynamic approach to understanding recent technological and theoretical shifts in the field of psychotherapy. Lawrence Hedges provides an expert overview and analysis of a wide variety of new perspectives on sex, sexuality, gender, and identity; new theories about sex’s role in therapy; and new discoveries about the human brain and how it works. Therapists will value Hedges’s unique insights into the role of sexuality in therapy, which are grounded in the author’s studies of neurology, the history of sexuality, transference, resistance, and countertransference. Clinicians will also appreciate his provocative analyses of influential perspectives on sex, gender, and identity, and his lucid, concrete advice on the practice of therapeutic listening.

Dr. Hedges and his co-authors highlight the leading ethical and legal dilemmas in therapy today, the management of malpractice exposure, the nature of memories and recovered memories and the causes of real and perceived abuse, the trauma of psychotic transference and how to acknowledge and deal safely with sexuality, the plight of the accused therapist and his/her response to the attendant stress, and the nightmare of legal claims and suits and the importance of support for the therapist. This book seeks to help clarify the issues, manage the dangers, and restore confidence in the psychotherapy process for clinicians who are experiencing fear, constriction, and loss of satisfaction in their work.

In this book, Hedges and his colleagues report clinical material to demonstrate how therapists can use their countertransferences in therapy. They are all therapists who have extended themselves emotionally to the people they work with, using depth psychological contact as part of their work.

Accusations of child abuse based on memories apparently recovered in psychotherapy, support groups, and similar settings have spurred a national debate. The question most frequently asked is, do these recovered memories refer to real events? This is the wrong question to ask, says Lawrence Hedges, the author of this important new work. What is vital is to understand the psychodynamic roots of remembered abuse. Drawing on a century of psychoanalytic study of memory and the way it operates in therapy, Hedges clarifies the misunderstandings and misinformation that currently exist in the media and popular press regarding memory and the nature of the psychotherapeutic process.