Marc Hebbrecht
• This article is a plea for a revalorisation of the concept of authenticity in psychoanalytic therapy and its therapeutic derivatives. Authenticity is defined on a psychoanalytic mode. This is illustrated with a clinical vignette of a psychoanalytical psychotherapy. The clinical vignette serves as an illustration of the utility of the analysis of the countertransferential reveries of the therapist in order to achieve more authentic interventions and growth in authenticity of the patient. Finally there is a discussion of the minimal requirements of an authentic (psychoanalytic) psychotherapist.
Nel Draijer Pauline van Zon
• This article describes the application of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) to the treatment of former child soldiers suffering from dissociative identity disorder. It focuses on the problems with aggression faced in psychotherapy. TFP provides a psychodynamic, object relations model to understand the aggression arising in psychotherapy, focusing on the transference and countertransference in the here-and-now of the therapeutic relationship. Aggression is considered an essential and vital inner dynamic aimed at autonomy, distancing, and the prevention of injury and dependency. In extremely traumatized patients there may be aggressive and oppressive inner parts that want total control (identifying with childhood aggressors), thus avoiding vulnerability. According to TFP it is vital that this aggression is addressed as belonging to the patients themselves, in order to reach some form of integration, balance, and health. This is illustrated in a case description.
