Self-Disclosure in the Therapeutic Relationship

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. The Shared Experience and Self-Disclosure

      • Martin Fisher

      Pages 3-15

   3. Self-Disclosure in Religious Spiritual Direction

      • Bede J. Healey

      Pages 17-27

3. Theoretical Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29

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   2. Self-Disclosure and Classical Psychoanalysis

      • Robert C. Lane, James W. Hull

      Pages 31-46

   3. Show and Tell

      • Sabert Basescu

      Pages 47-59

   4. Self-Disclosure in Rational-Emotive Therapy

      • Windy Dryden

      Pages 61-74

   5. Self-Disclosure in Psychotherapy and the Psychology of the Self

      • Lawrence Josephs

      Pages 75-89

4. Therapeutic Issues

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 91-91

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   2. The Role of Implicit Communication in Therapist Self-Disclosure

      • Jonathan M. Jackson

      Pages 93-102

   3. Transference, Countertransference, and Therapeutic Efficacy in Relation to Self-Disclosure by the Analyst

      • Esther Menaker

      Pages 103-115

   4. Self-Disclosure and the Nonwhite Ethnic Minority Patient

      • Adelbert H. Jenkins

      Pages 117-134

   5. Feminist Therapy Perspectives on Self-Disclosure

      • Laura S. Brown, Lenore E. A. Walker

      Pages 135-154

5. Therapeutic Modalities

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 155-155

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   2. Self-Disclosure and Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents

      • Nicholas Papouchis

      Pages 157-174

   3. Self-Disclosure in Psychotherapy

      • Lisa R. Greenberg

      Pages 175-189

   4. Self-Disclosure in Group Psychotherapy

      • Sophia Vinogradov, Irvin D. Yalom

      Pages 191-204

6. Extratherapeutic Manifestations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 205-205

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   2. Criteria for Therapist Self-Disclosure

      • Judith C. Simon

      Pages 207-225

The editors of the present volume were also privileged to collaborate on an earlier book, Intimacy, also published by Plenum Press. In our pref­ ace to that volume, we described the importance and essence of inti­ macy and its centrality in the domain of human relationships. After reading the contributions to that volume, a number of issues emerged and pressed for elaboration. These questions concerned the nature and parameters of intimacy. The natural extension of these con­ cerns can be found in the current work, Self-Disclosure in the Therapeutic Relationship. The editors, after careful consideration of the theoretical, philo­ sophical, and technical literature, are impressed by the relationship between intimacy and appropriate self-disclosure. Self-disclosure, in this context, refers to those behaviors that allow oneself to be suffi­ ciently revealing so as to become available for an intimate relationship. Levenson has referred to psychotherapy as the demystification of expe­ rience wherein intimacy emerges during the time that interpersonal vigilance diminishes through growing feelings of safety. Interpersonal experience can be demystified and detoxified by disclosure, openness, and authentic relatedness. This is not an easy process. Before one can be open, make contact, or reach out with authenticity, one must be available to oneself. This means making contact with-and accepting-the dark, fearful, and of­ ten untouched areas within the person that are often hidden even from oneself. The process of therapy enables those areas to gain conscious­ ness, be tolerated, and be shared with trusted others.

• feelings
• psychoanalysis
• psychology
• psychotherapy
• Therapeut
• therapy

• Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, Garden City, USA

  George Stricker, Martin Fisher

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