Exploring the Landscape of the Mind: An Introduction to Psychodynamic Therapy by Janet Lee Bachant, Ph.D.

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From the Introduction:

Psychotherapy is an adventure into uncharted territory — the landscape of the mind. Beginning a treatment takes us on a journey into the unmapped interior of a person’s soul.  We do not know what awesome vistas, formidable obstacles and strange inhabitants we will encounter.  But we do know that the exploration of the self is the path to finding answers to some of life’s greatest personal mysteries such as “How did I become the person I am?” “How can I solve the mystery of my problems in living?” “What do I really want?” and “Who am I?”  Psychodynamic treatment is akin to the great voyages of discovery in which significant danger is faced but the rewards of discovery outweigh the difficulties of the journey (Levin 2017). On all such encounters, each participant has a role to play and together they embark on an adventure that has no equal.

Uncovering complex mental processes (many of which are unconscious) in the context of an ongoing, intimate relationship is the core of psychodynamic therapy.  This work demands intellectual understanding, emotional connectedness and ideally a sense of humor to keep things in perspective. Doing psychotherapy tests patient and therapist alike, asking them both to deal with fears, tensions, losses, acceptance of limitations, exposing the self and maintaining a focus on the growing edge of development despite inevitable setbacks and disappointments. But it also provides a ground spring of authentic relatedness, an interest and commitment to knowing a person’s internal life. The understanding generated by psychodynamic psychotherapy is unrivaled. Shedler (2010) reports the recurring finding that “the benefits of psychodynamic therapy not only endure but increase with time” as contrasted with non-dynamic therapies whose gains decay over time (p. 102-3).  Students have captured the essence succinctly: “It goes deeper.” “It goes to the heart.”

The primary function of this book is to help the reader begin a voyage of discovery.  While every person’s path will be different, there are steps each of us can take to understand the minds of others and thereby to organize our own.   The techniques developed in this book focus primarily on the ordinary processes of mental organization, processes that are determined by the interaction of biological, emotional and interpersonal factors during the child’s early years. In addition to addressing how normal development informs psychodynamic technique, this book also highlights the long-term effects of adverse emotional experiences on the child’s mental functioning. These experiences are much more common than originally thought and have pervasive negative effects on development and emotional health. Van der Kolk (2005) has suggested a broadening of the concept of trauma to include the effects on mental life of what many have come to describe as developmental trauma disorder, complex developmental trauma, relational or interpersonal trauma, disordered attachment and other terms that signify the long term consequences of emotional adversity on mental development. I will use these terms interchangeably in this book.