Articles
By Alan C. Domian, Ph.D.
Ego analytic psychotherapy is a revision of psychoanalysis rather than a body of techniques added onto existing models (Apfelbaum, 2000c). As such, it has very different assumptions from most therapies influenced by analytic thinking.
The primary theorist associated with the development of ego analytic therapy (or ego analysis) is the late Bernard Apfelbaum, a psychoanalyst supervisor out of Berkeley California. In his later years, Apfelbaum emphasized that ego analytic therapy is (and always has been) primarily a cognitive therapy with some very different assumptions from other cognitive therapies (Apfelbaum, 2000b; Domian, coming to web 2018). Read the full article
What is Unique About Ego Analytic Insight and Interpretation?
By Alan C. Domian, Ph.D.
Ego analytic insight always sounds odd, and not at all what other psychotherapists would think of.
For example, a patient comes to an ego analyst with the presenting problem that he recently started feeling very depressed again, after years being free of it. He has problems sleeping, and almost wishes he could start drinking again to stop the endless ruminating.
He says, “I’m too old to be going through these same problems that I had years ago. I should be able to handle this type of thing on my own by now.” The patient informs the therapist that he has been to psychotherapy on and off for 35 years, but doesn’t believe it should be a lifestyle. He has always come out of his depressions either choosing to think differently or with the help of various therapy strategies. He really wants some new tools to get him back to his old self. Read the full article
Resolving Psychotherapists' Anxiety: The Ego Analytic Contribution
By Alan C. Domian, Ph.D.
A common anxiety among psychotherapists is a sudden feeling that we do not know what we are doing. It can happen to the most experienced therapists when we suddenly encounter something in a patient that we have not seen before.
The inner anxiety varies from a vague sense of being lost to an almost panicky “What do I do?” And if we have not at times disclosed feeling this way to other therapists, we have certainly said it to ourselves.
While this is a very common experience, many of us do not look at it as a problem in itself. In other words, we do not say to ourselves, “Hmm. I keep getting this haunting anxiety that I am not competent with particular patients. I wonder what that is all about?” Instead, we can find ourselves looking for the next breakthrough idea, a new technique we’ve yet to learn, or the latest behavioral protocol from the research. Read the full article
