Seeing involved in intimacy and psychotherapy is a kind of emotional-seeing. Closely related to empathy, this kind of seeing relies on subtle cues, factual information, interpersonal reactions, and issues of the context. "Finding" another person is essential for any adequate form of understanding and also forms the essential solution to personal isolation.

Intimacy is a complex and heterogeneous concept that has generated a variety of definitions, theories, and philosophies over the years. Al though there is much disagreement about the essential meaning of the term, there seems to be a consensus that intimacy, whatever it may be, is of central importance in human relationships, and specifically, in the theory and practice of psychotherapy. One approach to intimacy focuses on an intrapsychic conception. Intimacy occurs when an individual achieves full self-knowledge, and is fully in touch with his or her feelings and wishes. From this viewpoint, an intimate act occurs when a person is willing to share these feelings and wishes with another, so that self-disclosure becomes an important index of intimacy. This definition also implies that intimacy need not be reciprocal, so that a therapeutic relationship can achieve a good deal of intimacy without the therapist engaging in self-disclosure. An alternate approach to intimacy stresses the interpersonal nature of the concept. Intimacy is seen as the product of an interaction, and can only occur between people. Each one is able to touch something meaningful in the other, whether at a conscious, behavioral level or an unconscious and inferential level. Therapists seeking intimacy in these terms would probably be a good deal more active, and consider it more important to reveal something of the substance of their own persons, if not the facts of their lives.

Therapists are at risk, and the risk is increasing. Well-meaning practitioners used to believe that if they were adhering to ethical codes, and doing their best, they didn't have to worry about being sued or brought before a licensing board. But numerous well-publicized cases, and even more settled outside the limelight of the press have changed all that. Therapists are now worried, and rightfully so. And all of this has happened at the same time that therapists are learning better ways to help very troubled patients who have often been severely abused and traumatized. Though these patients often require less rigid and more personal and creative approaches that may deviate from some proposed norm, they are also most often those who threaten legal action against their therapists. How does one engage intensely with these patients without being drawn into potentially destructive countertransference enactments? How does one remain a creative, spontaneous and helpful therapist while avoiding being pulled into a voracious and inhuman legal system? These are a few of the important questions addressed by this book.

Incorporating the most up-to-date literature in sociology, psychoanalysis, psychology, and communication, this book provides an exhaustive synthesis of theoretical, empirical, and clinical research on personal relationships. Prager explores the complex interconnections between intimacy and individual development, examining relationships from intimacy to old age in their social, cultural, and gender contexts, and constructing an innovative, multi-tiered model of intimate relating. The book also delves into the thoughts and emotions people experience when they behave intimately with each other, and asks how intimate relationships come to be satisfying, stable and harmonious for the people involved. This book will be of interest to researchers, educators, students and practitioners who study or treat close relationships. It will also serve as an invaluable text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on personal relationships, intimacy, and family relations.

In this provocative volume, Dr. Florence W. Rosiello addresses erotic dynamics in the treatment relationship within the context of a two-person therapy, emphasizing the necessity of mutuality and emotional reciprocity between patient and therapist. With rich clinical illustrations, she demonstrates how the intimacy created by working within the sexual dimension of the therapeutic relationship may present opportunities for insight and growth that could easily be missed if one seeks to avoid these highly charged issues. Focusing on those patients who are predisposed to relating to others in a sexualized manner, Dr. Rosiello has discovered that mutual exploration of both the therapist's and the patient's subjective experience offers a valuable and effective means of enhancing the treatment.

Grounded in the personal narratives of twenty interracial couples with multiracial children, this volume uniquely explores interracial couples’ encounters with racism and discrimination, partner difference, family identity, and counseling and therapy. It intimately portrays how race, class, and gender shape relationship dynamics and a partner’s sense of belonging. Assessment tools and intervention techniques help professionals and scholars work effectively with multiracial families as they negotiate difference, resist familial and societal disapproval, and strive for increased intimacy. The book concludes with a discussion of interracial couples in cinema and literature, the sensationalization of multiracial relations in mass media, and how to further liberalize partner selection across racial borders.

Therapist. In fact, as she shows, feelings of love and attraction do not disappear simply because they are forbidden. Describing the famous and infamous liaisons of such figures as Carl Jung, Anton Mesmer, Otto Rank, and others, Baur offers irrefutable evidence that intimacy has played a part in therapy since the beginning and continues to barge in despite regulations to suppress it. With a plea for common sense and open-minded discussion, she makes a powerful argument.