Publications

The Analyst’s Vulnerability

Impact on Theory and Practice

In this book, Dr. Maroda challenges analysts to take a more active role in facilitating the treatment. She favors an approach that focuses on feedback and confrontation, as well as empathic understanding and acceptance. Essential to this task, and a thesis that runs through the book, are analysts’ motivations for doing treatment and the gratifications they naturally seek. Maroda asserts that an enduring blind spot arises from clinicians’ ongoing need to deny what they are personally seeking from the analytic process, including the need to rescue and be rescued. She equally seeks to remove the guilt and shame associated with these motivations, encouraging clinicians to embrace both their own humanity and their patients, rather than seeking to transcend it.

Maroda, K. (Order here) Published by Routledge

Psychodynamic Techniques:
Working with Emotion in the Therapeutic Relationship

The book discusses how to become more attuned to one's own experience with a client; Click on the title to preview, see reviews, sample chapters or to order.

"Maroda's proven skill at highly instructive use of courageous self-disclosure is superbly displayed in this revealing work on that rarest of topics: specific elucidation of technique in dynamic therapy. Full of practical advice and illuminating case material, this book is a godsend for therapists"

- Thomas G. Gutheil, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School

Seduction, Surrender, and Tranformation
Emotional Engagement in the Analytic Process

Maroda, K. (1999). Hinsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.

Seduction, Surrender, and Transformation demonstrates how interpersonal psychoanalysis obliges analysts to engage their patients with genuine emotional responsiveness so that not only the patient but the analyst too is open to ongoing transformation through the analytic experience. In so doing, the analyst moves from the position of an "interpreting observer" to that of an "active participant and facilitator" whose effective communications enable the patient to acquire basic self-trust along with self-knowledge.

"Seduction, Surrender, and Transformation provides the best in-depth comparison of one-person and two-person psychologies and the single best presentation of the technical interventions necessary to effect the emotional engagement at the heart of the two-person model that I know. While respectful of classical analysis, Maroda is persuasive in her insistence that therapeutic change depends on the emotional experience of analysis, which dictates ‘mutative interventions’ in place of ‘mutative interpretations.’ Of special note are her delineation of ‘responsible techniques’ for facilitating the patient’s affective experience and her very shrewd analysis of the changing conceptions of power and authority within the analytic dyad.”

- Ethel Spector Person, M.D., Author, By Force of Fantasy: How We Make Our Lives

The Power of Counter Transference

Innovations in Analytic Technique

Maroda, K. (1991). The original publication of The Power of Countertransference: Innovations in Analytic Technique, Chichester, UK: Wiley. Paperback, (1995), Northvale, NJ: Aronson. Second edition, (2005) Hinsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.

A signpost of the relational turn in contemporary psychoanalysis, Karen Maroda's The Power of Countertransference, published in 1991, is perhaps the first systematic effort to integrate the need for mutual emotional exchanges, which may include the analyst's own self-disclosures, into an interactive model of psychoanalytic practice. Maroda's call for emotional honesty and affective self-disclosure had an immediate impact on the field and led Harold Searles to comment, "If we follow the example set by Maroda, we shall be minimally likely to 'act in' our emotions in our sessions with our patients. They will benefit greatly as a result; we practitioners shall benefit, and the profession of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy will become healthier and stronger than it is at present." This revised edition includes a new Foreword by Lewis Aron and an Afterword in which Maroda clarifies her own position and comments on the evolution of psychoanalytic technique since the publication of The Power of Countertransference.

"There may be no single person who writes more powerfully about countertransference than Karen Maroda...Literally packed full of the kind of acquired wisdom that comes with years of thoughtful clinical work... A must-read for all beginning therapists. It is a book not just about countertransference but about doing and being a therapist. Maroda’s challenge to the typical understanding of the therapeutic relationship has important for therapists of all theoretical persuasions...The power of countertransference clearly illuminates the complexity of therapy and the seriousness at stake due to the reciprocal power of patient and therapist on one another...This book may just remind you why you became a therapist in the first place.” ​​

- Brad D. Strawn, Journal of Psychology and Theology

Journal Publications

Maroda, K. (In press) Deconstructing Enactment. Psychoanalytic Psychology.

Papers

  • Maroda, K. (2019). Working with enactment: The analyst’s willingness to be both confronting and vulnerable.Psychoanalytic Inquiry,39: 234-240.

  • Maroda, K. (2007) Ethical considerations of the home office. Psychoanalytic Psychology 24: 173-179.

  • Maroda, K (2005). Is psychoanalysis unteachable? A discussion of Irwin Hirsch’s interview with Edgar Levenson. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 4:725-731.

  • Maroda, K. (2005). Legitimate gratification of the analyst’s needs. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 41: 371-387.

  • Maroda, K. (2004). Sylvia and Ruth. The article is based on an interview with Sylvia Plath’s psychiatrist, Ruth Barnhouse. Salon editors named this piece one of the best articles of 2004.

  • Maroda, K. (2004). A relational perspective on women and power. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 21: 428-435.

  • Maroda, K. (2003). Self-disclosure and vulnerability: Countertransference in psychoanalytic treatment and supervision, Psychoanalytic Social Work, 10: 43-52.

  • Maroda, K. (2002). No place to hide: Affectivity, the unconscious, and the development of relational techniques. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 38: 101-120.

  • Maroda, K. (2001). Making it real: The quest for identity in “homosexual women,” Gender and Psychoanalysis, 6: 75-84.

  • Maroda, K. (2000). Reflections on Benjamin Wolstein, personal analysis, and co-participation. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 36:241-249.

  • Maroda, K. (2000). On homoeroticism, erotic countertransference, and the postmodern view of life: A commentary on papers by Rosiello, Tholfsen, and Meyers. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy, 4: 61-70.

  • Maroda, K. (1999). Creating an intersubjective context for self-disclosure. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 69:474-489.

  • Maroda, K. (1998). Enactment: When the patient’s and analyst’s pasts converge, Psychoanalytic Psychology, 15:517-535.

  • Maroda, K. (1998). Why mutual analysis failed: The case of Ferenczi and RN. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 34:115-132.

  • Maroda, K. (1997). Heterosexual displacements of homosexuality: Clinical implications. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 7(6), 841-857.

  • Maroda, K. (1997). On the reluctance to sanction self-disclosure. Commentary on Kenneth A. Frank's paper. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 7(3), 323-326.

  • Maroda, K. (1995). Projective identification and countertransference interventions: Since feeling is first. Psychoanalytic Review, 82(2): 229-247.

  • Maroda, K. (1991). Saint or sadist: who is the self-righteous patient? The Psychotherapy Patient, 7,125-135.

  • Maroda, K. (1987). The fate of the narcissistic personality: Lost in time. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 4:279-290.

Recent Book Reviews

  • Maroda, K. (2017) The Intersection of Art and Empathy: Does it change society? A review of the film Moonlight (2016) directed by Barry Jenkins. PsycCritiques, Vol 62 (13).

  • Maroda, K. (2014). Thinking about thinking: Is psychoanalysis about changing your mind or changing your life? A review of Creating a Psychoanalytic Mind: A Psychoanalytic Method and Theory by Fred Busch. PsycCritiques, Vol 59(31)

  • Maroda, K. (2014). Straight talk for gays and lesbians. A review of the video, Emotionally Focused Therapy With Same-Sex Couples presented by Sue Johnson. PsycCritiques, Vol. 59(46).

  • Maroda, K. (2014). Thinking about thinking: Is psychoanalysis about changing your mind or changing your life? A review of Creating a Psychoanalytic Mind: A Psychoanalytic Method and Theory by Fred Busch. PsycCritiques, Vol 59(31)

  • Maroda, K. (2014). Straight talk for gays and lesbians. A review of the video, Emotionally Focused Therapy With Same-Sex Couples presented by Sue Johnson. PsycCritiques, Vol. 59(46).

  • Maroda, K. (2012). The career of John Bowlby: A case study in attachment. A review of the book, John Bowlby—From Psychoanalysis to Ethology: Unraveling the Roots of Attachment Theory by Frank C. P. van der Hors. PsycCritiques, Vol. 57(17).

  • Maroda, K. (2011). A call for integration and compassion from across the pond. A review of the book, Integrative therapy: 100 key points and techniques by Maria Gilbert and Vanja Orlans, PsycCritiques, Vol 56 (33).

  • Maroda, K. (2010). Review of “Psychoanalysis at the Margins.” Psychologist-Psychoanalyst, Vol. 30: 9-10.

  • Maroda, K. (2010). A book review essay of “A dream of undying fame: How Freud betrayed his mentor and invented psychoanalysis” and “Sigmund Freud and the history of Anna O: Reopening a closed case.” American Imago, Vol 67: 677-686.

  • Maroda, K. (2008). A review of “Coasting in the countertransference: Conflicts of self-interest between analyst and patient” by Irwin Hirsch. Psychologist-Psychoanalyst, Vol 28: 60-62.

  • Maroda, K. (2008). The elephant does not feel the bird under its feet. A review of Sexual boundary violations: Therapeutic, supervisory, and academic contexts by Andrea Celenza. PsycCritiques, Vol 53.

  • Maroda, K. (2008) Too much to digest? A review of Comparative-Integrative Psychoanalysis: A Relational Perspective for the Discipline’s Second Century by Brent Willock. PsycCritiques, 53 (4).

  • Maroda, K. (2007). Has psychoanalysis abandoned sexuality? A review of Patterns of Desire: Sexual Diversity in Psychoanalysis by William G. Herron and Rafael Art Javier. PsycCritiques, 52 (10).

  • Maroda, K, (2006) The brain game: Does neuroscience research change the way we practice? A review of Coming Into Mind” The Mind-Brain Relationship by Margaret Wilkinson, PsycCritques, 51 (47).

  • Maroda, K. (2005) New research on the unconscious: Was Freud wrong? A review of The New Unconscious by Ran R. Hassin, James S. Ulleman, And John A. Bargh (Eds.), PsycCritiques, 50(10).

Book Chapters

  • Maroda, K. (2017) Enactment and Beyond: Facilitating Constructive Conflict in the Therapeutic Relationship. In: Core Competencies in Relational Psychoanalysis: A Guide to Practice Study and Research. Roy Barsness. New York: Routledge.

  • Maroda, K. (2009). Less is More: An argument for the judicious use of self-disclosure. In, Bloomgarden, A. and; Mennuti, R. (Eds.) Psychotherapist Revealed: Therapists Speak About Self-Disclosure in Psychotherapy. New York: Routledge.

  • Maroda, K. (2005). Show some emotion. In: Relational Analysis: Volume II: Innovation and Expansion.
    (Eds.) Lewis Aron and; Adrienne Harris. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.

  • Maroda, K. (2003) On homoeroticism, erotic countertransference, and the postmodern view of life: A commentary on papers by Rosiello, Tholfsen, and Meyers. In: Psychotherapy With Gay Men and Lesbians: Contemporary Psychodynamic Approaches, (Eds.) Jack Drescher, Ann D’Arcole, and; Erica Schoenberg. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.

  • Maroda, K. (1998) Sex, lies and psychoanalysis. In, Why I Became A Psychotherapist, (Ed.) Joseph Reppen. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.