Publications

This study aims to investigate the conceptual grounds on which subjective rectification and the interweaving of the therapeutic and epistemic demand rely, specifically the assumption that the subject is involved in their own suffering. This perspective presupposes a subject with a certain degree of freedom and choice. Drawing on Freud’s choice of neurosis, Lacan’s unsoundable decision of being and forced choice and Zupančič’s ideas on ...

The current study empirically investigates patient agency as a multi-layered and dynamic construct. We explored how agency appears before, during and after 20 sessions of psychodynamic therapy. Building on the Listening Guide, we examined interviews with a woman who had depressive complaints, paying attention to the main plot lines, associative logic and musicality in speech. As a result, we constructed four voices (i.e., ‘the caregiver’s ...

In this study, we explore the etymology and history of "agency," link it with relational psychoanalytic literature, and examine how it can be understood within Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and practice. Building on its history, we find that "agency" embodies a binary distinction between the person as an actor, on the one hand, and as a being who is subject to determining structures, on the other. This binary approach, however, limits the ...

Client agency is considered a crucial contributor to good treatment outcome. Recent studies, however, differ strongly in how they conceptualise and investigate agency. The current study explores the nature of client agency in ten clients' pre-treatment interviews. Applying Consensual Qualitative Research, we constructed three overarching categories, subdivided into 14 sub-categories capturing both between and within-person differences in agency ...

In the present paper we examine four cases in which the assumption that "good outcome" necessarily means "good therapy" did not hold. Cases were selected that reported good pre-post outcome (i.e., clinically reliable decrease in symptom severity) but a negative (disappointing) therapy experience, drawn from a randomized controlled trial (the Ghent Psychotherapy Study) and a naturalistic outcome study (the Stockholm Young Adults Psychotherapy ...

Research concerning the influence of core interpersonal patterns related to childhood trauma on the therapeutic process is scarce. We investigated interpersonal patterns at the start of treatment, changes in interpersonal patterns as treatment progressed, and the change process in a mixed-methods single case study of a supportive-expressive psychodynamic psychotherapy with a 33-year-old female with a history of childhood trauma. The patient ...

Volgens Arendt is gedachteloosheid een dagdagelijkse ervaring in ons hedendaagse leven, waar er haast geen tijd wordt genomen om halt te houden en na te denken. Zo ook in de kliniek waar handelingsprocedures, geïnstalleerd vanuit een toenemende tijdsdruk en vraag naar efficiëntie, de mogelijkheid beknotten om halt te houden en na te denken over vragen omtrent de logica van de casus. Dit artikel wil het denken van Arendt, in het bijzonder haar ...