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Specificities of Psychoanalytic Treatment: Birth of a Method

Editors: Yvette Dorey, Serge Frisch, Leopoldo Bleger

£21.99 – £31.99

A stimulating account of some of the key challenges found in psychoanalysis through a discussion of the Specificity initiative, a research method that examines how analysts work, associate, and reflect together in a group. It offers both a study of the work and an inquiry into the realities of psychoanalytic collaboration.

This book contains contributions from Leopoldo Bleger, Catherine Desvignes, Marie-France Dispaux-Ducloux, Yvette Dorey, Cláudio Laks Eizirik, Fabienne Fillion, Serge Frisch, Lila Hoïjman, Erika Kittler, Diana Messina Pizzuti, Luc Michel, Martine Sandor-Buthaud, Andrea Scardovi, Évelyne Sechaud, and Ronnie Shaw.

Due to be published July 2025

Editors

Yvette Dorey, Serge Frisch, Leopoldo Bleger
ISBN

9781800133785
Format

Paperback, e-Book, Print & e-Book
Page Extent

300
Publication Date

July 2025
Subject Areas

Psychoanalysis
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Description

Inter-analytic exchange involves associatively voicing thoughts in response to the clinical material of a patient, thus shedding light on some of the intrapsychic activity of psychoanalysts at work. Various transferential movements which may emerge must be contained and processed within this framework. For a day and a half, a group of analysts freely associates on three sessions of clinical material presented by a colleague (who remains silent during the discussion) in the presence of two moderators and a silent observer-rapporteur. This forms the core dispositif of the Specificity method.

The general framework of the method is upheld by a European research group that meets biannually. Members establish annual clinical working parties during the European Psychoanalytic Federation (EPF) Congress, where they review observer reports and work through them using, again, free association. A summary of each session is transcribed and a subgroup is dedicated to the systematic reading of the reports to produce further study. While the dispositif does not offer an absolute guarantee, over fifteen years of experience and exploration have proved its worth. It is now a recognised model within the EPF and the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA).

This collection documents the history of the origins of the method and the discoveries made, the results of the research, and also the ongoing questioning within the EPF. It is neither exhaustive nor didactic, but instead invites you, the reader, to integrate your experiences with the ones presented herein. This is a must-read for all psychoanalysts and clinicians.

 

About the editors

About the editors

Yvette Dorey is a psychopathologist and psychoanalyst certified by the French Psychoanalytic Association (APF). She has been a research psychologist (Val-de-Grâce and Percy – joint publications on criteria for psychical selection) and a senior lecturer (Paris X University). Her work primarily addresses boundary issues, teaching, and transmission. She has translated several articles from English into French (Tchou), participated on reading committees, edited a book, and published articles (Dunod, Éditions TDK, Évolution psychiatrique, Revue française de psychanalyse, Psychologie clinique, and others). She has been a member of Specificity since 2010.

 

 

 

Serge Frisch is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Luxembourg. He has been a member of Specificity since 2006.

 

 

 

 

Leopoldo Bleger, a training member of the French Psychoanalytic Association (APF), left Argentina in 1976 after completing his studies in medicine and psychiatry and now works in Paris. He has written texts on the work of Melanie Klein, on psychoanalysis in the Río de la Plata region, and on methodological issues in psychoanalysis. His most recent book is Analyse en présence, analyse à distance. Paris: PUF, 2024. He has been a member of Specificity since 2006. 

Contents

Contents

About the editors and contributors

Foreword
Cláudio Laks Eizirik

Introduction

Part I
Presentation of the “specificity” method – psychoanalysts at work

1. The working party on the “specificity of psychoanalytic treatment today”
Serge Frisch and Leopoldo Bleger 

2. The method within its historical context
Leopoldo Bleger and Serge Frisch

3. Construction of the dispositif
Serge Frisch and Leopoldo Bleger

4. Presentation of a clinical group and its discussion in the Paris Group, “The Red Blanket”
Yvette Dorey

5. Gourmet psychoanalysis, or attempting to describe the work of a research group
Erika Kittler

Part II
Clinical insights – inter-analytic exchanges

6. Moderating a group of analysts listening to clinical material
Catherine Desvignes

7. Specificity of the method from the presenter’s perspective
Martine Sandor-Buthaud

8. The silent support of the tripod – intersecting views: From the role of the rapporteur to the function of the observer
Marie-France Dispaux-Ducloux and Lila Hoïjman

9. The crossing: A psychoanalytic journey into the heart of a group setting
Fabienne Fillion

10. About candidate group work
Ronnie Shaw 

Part III
Theoretical insights – Towards a new field of investigation

11. Free association and free discourse
Luc Michel

12. Unconscious communication in inter-analytic work
Diana Messina Pizzuti

13. What do specificity groups teach us about psychoanalytic specificity?
Andrea Scardovi

14. The clinical narrative in the working party on specificity
Leopoldo Bleger

15. The group as infant in front of the primal: Grasping, pointing, free-associating in specificity groups practice
Andrea Scardovi

16. Outcomes and results
Leopoldo Bleger and Serge Frisch

Postscript
Évelyne Sechaud

References

Index

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