Patient as Bean Counter

In this chapter, the author aims to illuminate the clinical theories that therapists carry with them into sessions where they operate implicitly, directing their attention to select sorts of data that are then used to fashion an intervention. This, then, is the ultimate lesson of the Clinical Moments Project𔃀to learn how to listen to how therapists listen to the unfolding material. The author talks about analysts ("commentators") of varying theoretical persuasions to weigh in, sharing what they think about the situation and how they imagine they might have proceeded. What made the moment particularly challenging for the analyst was the question of how to explore the patient’s transference without disrupting the mirroring function that the patient looked to the analyst to serve, which urgently needed. Much transference involve the patients paying meticulous attention (“counting beans”) to what they are or are not receiving from the analyst in the way of praise, attention, love and adoration.