Anaclitic Therapy in North American Psychoanalytic and Psychiatric Practice in the 1950S–1960s

Abstract

Anaclitic therapy, a little-known chapter in the history of North American psychoanalysis and psychiatry, sheds light on the prevailing trends and therapeutic approaches common in the 1950s and 1960s. It touches upon major junctions in the history of psychoanalysis and psychiatry, such as the therapeutic use of regression, the usage of biological measures in conjunction with psychoanalysis, the relationship between therapist and patient and eclecticism in North American psychiatry. By following the brief history of this form of therapy, this article affords a glimpse of the history of some of the significant issues practitioners in psychoanalysis and psychiatry faced at the time.