ABSTRACT
From Freud’s (1912/1958) discussion of the concept of transference through the object relations theories of Klein (1948) and Winnicott (1958) and the interpersonal psychoanalytic perspective of Sullivan (1953), psychodynamic theories have focused on the interpersonal world of the psychotherapy participants as central to the treatment process. Modern schools of brief psychodynamic therapy (Benjamin, 1991; Luborsky, 1984; Strupp & Binder, 1984) have continued this focus and added explicit methods of identifying interpersonal themes during psychotherapy sessions. The interest in interpersonal processes, however, is not unique to psychodynamic schools, with other treatments such as Klerman, Weissman, Rounsaville, and Chevron’s (1984) interpersonal therapy for depression and Safran and Segal’s (1990) cognitive-interpersonal perspective also placing interpersonal processes in one form or another as central to the psychotherapy model.
