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Danger and defense: The technique of close process attention: A festschrift in honor of Paul Gray. Edited by Marianne Goldberger. $40. Pp. 386. Northvale NJ: Aronson, 1996.
Close process attention is the method of defense analysis proposed by Paul Gray, a training and supervising analyst in Washington, D.C. This edited volume is a festschrift by his students and colleagues honoring his contribution to psychoanalytic technique and education. More than most edited volumes, the book has a coherent unity of theme, insofar as most of the chapters deal with some aspecthistorical, theoretical, clinical-of Gray's specific technical recommendations.
The basic technique of close process attention is relatively simple and straightforward. The analyst listens carefully for any sign that the patient is manifesting resistance, consciously or unconsciously, and the patient is encouraged first to observe the fact of the resistance and second to associate to the possible reasons for it. Thus the patient may become hesitant or halting, feel blocked, suddenly interrupt an angry verbalization with a shift into a self-accusatory mode, lose track of a train of thought, and so on. Lateness and absences are not specifically mentioned, but presumably they would also be included under the category of resistances. In most instances, patients are encouraged to think about their resistant behavior in terms of their anxieties in relation to the analyst. The method is a microscopic, moment-to-moment focus of investigation leading to interpretation. It is also a consistent defense-before-drive approach...