ABSTRACT
This chapter designes to discuss the particular dynamics and special issues that emerge in psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions. It focuses on panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), but aspects of the psychopharmacological and psychological theory and treatment of panic and GAD overlap with other anxiety disorders. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) was an important area of clinical observation and theorizing for early psychoanalysts. Transference and countertransference fantasies can be identified to aid patients with problems in interpersonal relationships secondary to OCD. The therapist wondered whether anything more might be done to ease the symptoms with additional pharmacological intervention, despite the absence of vegetative symptoms. Awareness of the dynamic factors can guide therapists in their psychodynamic psychotherapeutic interventions and are relevant to medication management in a combined treatment. Drawing from the work of several psychoanalytic theorists and research on psychological factors in depression, Busch, Rudden, and Shapiro delineated five central dynamics in depressive disorders.
