Interpretation and Interaction: Psychoanalysis or Psychotherapy? - Hardcover

"A careful and expert study of diverse change-inducing processes, this book differentiates interactive psychotherapy and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy from each other and from psychoanalysis.  Current theoretical issues of empathy, interpretation, dreams, and transference are usefully addressed.  The result is an outstandingly rich psychodynamic contribution."

- Mardi Horowitz, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, UCSF

"In Interpretation and Interaction, Jerome Oremland cogently reexamines psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in terms of the relative contributions of the two variables - interpretation and interaction - that enter into all therapeutic endeavors.  Oremland's conception and clinical examples of "psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy," which he radically differentiates from all types of "interactive psychotherapy," carve out a conceptual niche for a genre of psychotherapy that may be said to be fully analytic in relation to technique, therapeutic action, and treatment goals.  Merton Gill's dialogue with Oremland adds rich texture to a work that is theoretically provocative and clinically consequential."

- Jerome A. Winer, M.D., Editor, The Annual of Psychoanalysis

"One of the most interesting and important questions in the whole area of psychological treatment and clinical practice today concerns the relationship of psychotherapy to psychoanalysis.  As opportunities for formal, traditional psychoanalyses diminish, psychoanalytic theory and teaching become increasingly vital to the diverse and expanding practice of psychotherapy.  But the issues and questions concerning the relationship between psychotherapy and psychoanalysis are complex and difficult.  Interpretation and Interaction makes a significant contribution to these crucial problems, and it does so in an unusual and refreshing way.  Jerome Oremland, in a thoughful and systematic fashion, evaluates the essentials of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.  Oremland's contribution responds to, and critiques, the seminal work of Merton Gill, and readers of the book will enjoy the pleasure of a final chapter by Gill in which he responds to Oremland's presentation.  The result is a lively and stimulating dialogue on some of the thorniest conceptual and technical problems facing all contemporary clinicians."

- Stephen A. Mitchell, Founder, Psychoanalytic Dialogues

"As a practitioner of both psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, I found Jerome Oremland's monograph admirably concise, challenging, and very relevant both to my clinical work and to my teaching."

- L. David Levi, M.D., Psychoanalytic Books

In recent decades the relationship between psychoanalysis and psychotherapy has been a focal point for debate about the distinctiveness of analysis as a particular kind of therapeutic enterprise.  In Interpretation and Interaction, Jerome Oremland invokes the interventions of "interpretation" and "interaction," rooted in the values of understanding and amelioration, respectively, as a conceptual basis for reappraising these important issues.  In place of the commonly accepted triadic division among psychoanalysis, exploratory psychotherapy, and supportive psychotherapy, he proposes a new triad: psychoanalysis, psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy, and interactive psychotherapy.  Anchoring his classification in what he terms the "orientation of the therapy" rather than the "orientation of the therapist," Oremland submits that analysis and psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy strive systematically to interpret the therapeutic interaction as expressed in the transference.  Interactive psychotherapy, on the other hand, uses the transference selectively to ameliorate psychic stress.

Interpretation and Interaction is enriched by a concluding chapter from Merton Gill, a preeminent authority on the therapeutic process. Gill's critical appreciation of Oremland's proposals amounts to an illuminating refinement of his own position on the relationship between psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.

Scholarly in conception, thoughtful in tone, and pragmatic in yield, Interpretation and Interaction is a clarifying addition to the psychoanalytic theory of psychotherapy.  It will have the practical consequence, in Gill's words, of "aiding clinicians in retaining their analytic identities and their analytic orientation across the spectrum of their therapeutic work."