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The Transforming Power of Affect: A Model for Accelerated Change by Diana Fosha Basic Books, 2000, 376 pp.
Reviewed by Andre Marquis*
In this book, Fosha articulately presents both a metapsychology that theoretically accounts for her observations regarding the transformational nature of viscerally-experienced emotion as well as an elucidation of the transformational processes themselves. Her theory of development, psychopathology, and clinical practice, which she calls accelerated experiential-dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP), emerged within the context of other short-term dynamic psychotherapies (STDPs). Like the other STDPs, AEDP demands an active therapist - one who deftly counters the client's defensive emotionality, shares her experience of the client, and models emotional expression and processing. Fosha's profoundly "experience-near," empathically-attuned, humanistic approach to psychotherapy draws upon cutting-edge research from disciplines such as attachment theory, neuroscience, emotion theory, constructivism, outcome research, and developmental psychology, as well as the various psychoanalytic schools. I found Fosha's integrative AEDP refreshing and stimulating.
Part I (Theoretical Foundations) consists of five chapters. In the first chapter, Fosha introduces the reader to her model of affect, articulating the fundamentality of the relational matrix and core affect, or core affective experience, which she defines as the vital, emotional experience that naturally arises when defensive efforts to inhibit spontaneity are in abeyance. Fosha maintains that the experience of core affective states, which must be distinguished from mere affect, is inherently transformational.
Chapter 2 explores attachment processes and relational/caregiver dynamics "through the lens of affect." Viewing attachment as "the foundation of our psychological life" and personality as a function of the internalization of the defenses one has learned to rely on to combat the overwhelmingly painful emotions that result from relational/environmental failures, Fosha stresses the safety-promoting nature...