Childhood Dialogues and the Lifting of Repression

In this book a psychoanalyst discusses the rationale for selecting classical or nonclassical psychoanalytic techniques with patients of various types. Myerson explores the nature of the work that can be accomplished in each type of analysis, pointing out the part played by the therapeutic relationship. He emphasizes the significance of the patient's character structure, which has been formed by childhood dialogues with parents, for the appropriate choice of analytic techniques. The central aim of classical psychoanalytic work has always been the lifting of repression. Dr Myerson argues that a classical analysis is only feasible if the patient has used repression as the major defence early in life. This will be the case if, in the patient's childhood, the parents were in general available and empathic to what he was experiencing. By contrast, a patient whose parents were generally insensitive and critical has become accustomed to using more global and inflexible mechanisms of defence, such as massive denial and protection.
These are probably not susceptible to modification through classical psychoanalysis, and the analyst may have to modify his technique or change to another approach. Dr Myerson illustrates his argument through numerous clinical vignettes.