TY - JOUR A1 - Bader, Michael J. T1 - At Death's Door: Therapists and Patients as Agents JF - Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 03 (1993), pp. 279-300. N2 - This paper argues that some forms of sadomasochistic fantasy and enactments can represent a developmental and therapeutic advance for some patients. Playful fantasies of dominance and submission, when enacted, function to reassure the patient that the other can survive the full expression and power of his or her sexual desire. Sadomasochistic scenarios can mitigate guilt and worry and free the patient for an experience of sexual ruthlessness. The apparent differences in the manifest roles of the man and woman in this situation are belied in a paradoxical way by underlying commonalities. A woman can use her consensually scripted domination as a reassurance that the man can withstand the full force of her excitement, and the man can experience his partner's excitement in submission as a condition of safety for the consolidation of his phallic strength. Two clinical examples illustrate these paradoxes and the affirmative dimension of certain kinds of sadomasochistic play. The suggestion is made that blanket critiques of sadomasochism as either perversion or misogyny are misguided and potentially repressive. Y1 - 1993 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bader, Michael J. T1 - Back to the >States< Victim and Abuser States in Borderline Personality Disorder JF - Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 03 (1993), pp. 309-313. Y1 - 1993 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bader, Michael J. T1 - Further remarks on papers by Spezzano and Gerson JF - Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 06 (1996), pp. 741-764. N2 - Many patients manifest a desire to help the analyst. This is usually understood as being derivative of defensive aims or in the service of other primary motivations. This paper argues for the developmental and clinical importance of primary altruistic aims, which are often warded off by the patient because of his or her fears of exploitation or rejection. Several pathogenic beliefs and varieties of psychopathology result from the failure of the patient's caretakers to allow the child to contribute to their welfare, to >take< the child's >help.< Similarly, some patients require tangible evidence that they are having a positive impact on their analyst. Ordinary >good-enough< technique often reinforces the patient's view that he or she has nothing to offer. A full appreciation by the analyst of the importance to patients of having their altruistic gestures and concerns recognized and accepted can open up possibilities for analytic progress and therapeutic growth. Various sources of resistance to and misunderstanding of these dynamics are explored, ranging from ethical concerns to certain traits that cluster in the personalities of analysts. Y1 - 1996 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bader, Michael J. T1 - Is self-disclosure a personal proclivity or a principle of technique?. Reply to commentary JF - Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 08 (1998), pp. 001-032. N2 - Social-constructivist and other postmodern currents within contemporary psychoanalysis put a great premium on an epistemological critique of positivism and the authority of the analyst. This focus on the essential ambiguity and constructed nature of experience implicitly tilts the analyst's interest away from a disciplined attempt to develop systems of validation that rely on observable patient responses as confirmatory data with which to judge the analyst's interventions and understandings. As a result, even while defending themselves against charges of relativism and solipsism, many postmodern writers still tend to idealize uncertainty and implicitly discourage the clinician from seeking greater accuracy and clarity about the patient. Epistemic doubt and an ethic that celebrates surprise, although useful as a corrective to tendencies toward rigidity and arrogance in technique, unnecessarily clouds the ubiquitous existence and possibility of accurate intersubjective understanding. This bias can be seen as historically linked to similar processes in academia in which progressive intellectuals abandoned a social change agenda in response to a growing political conservatism and cultural cynicism and, instead, became increasingly involved in >theory for its own sake.< Similarly, the epistemological position of the postmodernists sponsors a bias against therapeutic activism and inadvertently rationalizes a growing pessimism in our own clinical practice. Y1 - 1998 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bader, Michael J. T1 - J. D. Sutherland in memoriam JF - Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 08 (1998), pp. 061-078. Y1 - 1998 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bader, Michael J. T1 - More Metaphor: Commentary on Paper by Ken Corbett JF - Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 08 (1998), pp. 583-587. Y1 - 1998 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bader, Michael J. T1 - Power, Puritanism, and Promiscuity: Pursuit of a President JF - Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 09 (1999), pp. 551-556. Y1 - 1999 ER -