Testimony and Witnessing in Psychoanalysis

In this fascinating volume, Zipi Rosenberg Schipper approaches the fundamental topic of testimony, seeking to recognize its value as a distinct and vital function in psychoanalytic work, separate from its inherited importance to work on trauma. Rosenberg Schipper introduces a revivifying philosophical, linguistic and psychoanalytic approach to the act of testimony, focusing on the role of witnessing in daily life and the importance it has as a therapeutic tool in psychoanalytic and psychological therapy. Throughout, she pinpoints three key psychoanalytic theories on patient testimony. She begins by looking at Freud's foundational work on testimony as a means of concealing the unconscious and the questions of credibility in the consulting room this creates before looking at Winnicottian and Kohutian theories, whereby therapists take everything the patient says as a definitive truth. She concludes by looking at the Intersubjective and Relational schools of thought, where the therapist assumes the role of witness. By providing a comprehensive overview of the conflicting theories on the topic, Rosenberg Schipper equips practicing psychoanalysts and analysts-in-training with the tools necessary to utilize this vital therapeutic device and engage with it in treatment for all patients.

Zipi Rosenberg Schipper is a clinical psychologist, supervisor and occupational therapist working in private practice in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Part 1: What Is Spoken Testimony? 1. What Are We Talking About When Discussing Spoken Testimony? 2. A Paradigmatic Turning Point in the Understanding of the Concept of Testimony. 3. Aspects and Images of Personal Testimony. 4. Spoken Testimony, Its epistemological Status and Its Value Standing. 5. Types of Spoken Testimony. Part 2: Testimony as a Therapeutic Function in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy 6. Everyone Wants Their Voice to Be Heard. 7. The Roles of Oral Testimony in Our Lives. 8. The Function of Testimony in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. 9. The History of Psychoanalysis's Attitude to the Testimonies of Patients. 10. Recognizing the Power of the Function of Testimony in Therapy. 11. A Review of the Writings of Psychoanalytic Researchers on the Function of Testimony in Therapy. 12. A Unique Kind of Patient`s Testimony in the Therapeutic Process 13. Summary of the Main Characteristics of the Therapist as a Witness and the Patient's Testimony. 14. Why Testimony and Why Now? Epilogue