COVER -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Preface -- 1 The dynamics of careseeking and caregiving -- Introduction -- Origins of interest in attunement in therapy -- Structure of the book -- 2 Research on the process of interaction in adult psychotherapy -- Introduction -- The work of the Chicago Group: 1940-1960 -- From a focus on the individual to a focus on interaction: 1960-1980 -- Psychotherapy research: 1980-2000s -- Conclusion -- 3 Infant/caregiver interactions: the process of affect identification,communication, and regulation -- Introduction -- From deduction to construction: from Melanie Klein to Gyorgy Gergely -- Affect regulation is linked with caregiving from the start of life Correct identification of affect by the caregiver affects the infant'sdeveloping sense of self -- How caregivers communicate to infants that they understand theiraffective state: the process of affect attunement -- Infants' responsiveness to affective interaction with caregivers andtheir response to loss of contact with caregivers -- Caregiver/infant interactions: the patterning of relationship -- Patterns of affect attunement associated with effective caregiving -- Affect attunement and empathy -- Summary -- 4 Patterns of careseeking/caregiving relationships: research intoattachment behaviour in infants and young children -- Introduction -- Attachment theory -- Internal working models of the experience of relationship -- Attachment classification: stable and persistent over time -- The adult attachment interview -- Careseeker/caregiver dyads: communication patterns in relationto affect -- Careseeker/caregiver dyads: interaction patterns in relation to play -- Careseeker/caregiver dyads: interaction strategies based on secureor insecure relationships -- Effective caregiving: attunement to a range of affect -- Summary.

5 Presenting the concept of goal-corrected empathic attunement:effective caregiving within psychotherapy -- Introduction -- The attachment dynamic -- The system for exploration -- Goal-corrected empathic attunement: a process involved ineffective caregiving -- The psychotherapeutic relationship: an account of interactionalsequences using the concept of goal-corrected empathic attunement -- Where have we come so far? -- 6 First experiment: the identification of affect attunement inadult psychotherapy -- Introduction -- The reasearch design -- First experiment -- Materials and procedure -- Subjects -- Results -- Table 1: Ratings of excerpts given by the experts -- Table 2: Rating of the excerpts by experts and students -- Characteristics of an 'attuned' therapist -- Characteristics of a 'non-attuned' therapist -- Discussion -- Summary -- 7 Second experiment: is empathic attunement interactive? -- Introduction -- Hypothesis -- Overview of the experiment -- Methodology: subjects -- Method of allocation to groups -- Table 3: The experimental group and the control group -- Confidentiality -- Materials and practical arrangements -- Procedure -- Rating instruments -- The mechanics of the debriefing -- My experience of the debriefing sessions -- Manging and collating the qualitative material -- Statistical analysis -- Correct identification of attuned and non-attuned excerpts by theexperimental group and the control group -- Qualitative analysis -- Chart 1: Correct and incorrect identification of verbal andnon-verbal behaviour -- Chart 2: Interpretation of non-attuned extract -- Discussion -- Summary -- 8 Third experiment: an experiment designed to test whethersecure attachment style correlates with empathic attunementand whether empathic attunement can be improved withtraining -- Introduction -- Overview -- Table 4: The design and rationale for the study.

Reasons for employing professional actors -- Hiring the actors -- Reasons for deciding the number of actors and students to beinvolved -- Constructing the scenarios -- Creating a control group and an experimental group for thepurposes of training -- The process of creating matched pairs -- Creating a measure of caregiving: the careseeker's andcaregiver's perspectives -- Briefing for the students -- Briefing for the actors -- Briefing for the cameramen -- Observations of the day -- Training -- Discussion -- Experiment time two -- Attachment questionnaires -- Summary -- 9 The process of obtaining a reliable measure forgoal-corrected empathic attunement -- Introduction -- Phase one: method -- Creating a measuring instrument -- Obtaining the clinical material -- Modifying the rating instrument -- Creating a second measuring instrument -- Rating procedure -- Issues arising from the first attempt at getting a reliable rating -- Involving a second independent rater -- Table 5: Empathic attunement score correlation between twoindependent raters and self -- Phase two: method -- Table 6: Empathic attunement between independent rater and self -- Table 7: Scores of all three raters for each of the 12 students -- Learning from our mistakes or repeating our mistakes -- Analysis of our attempts so far -- Example 1: Goal-corrected empathic attunement within thecontext of psychotherapy -- Example 2: Poor goal-correctedempathic attunement -- Phase three: method -- Technique for managing defensive processes -- Table 8: Correlation between the two independent raters on21 segments of tape taken from four interviews -- Table 9: Correlation between the two independent raters on theaverage of 1.5-minute segments of tape from twelve interviews -- Table 10: Correlation between the two independent raters ontwelve tapes -- Summary -- 10 Results of the Third Experiment.

Introduction -- Measures -- Table 11: Internal consistency of the scales involved in caregivers'measure of caregiving -- Table 12: Frequency of distribution: caregivers' (students') score Subjective measures of empathic attunement: careseekers' (actors')score -- Chart 3: Students' score/frequency of distribution -- Table 13: Internal consistency of the scales involved in careseekers'measure of caregiving -- Table 14: Frequency of distribution: careseekers' (actors') score -- Chart 4: Actors' score/frequency of distribution -- Chart 5: Independent measure of GCEA/frequency of distribution -- Correlations between the measurers -- Table 15: Correlation between measures of careseeker/caregiverinteraction -- Chart 6: Student score by actor score -- Analysis of variance -- Table 16: Analysis of variance student score -- Table 17: Analysis of variance actor score (total score) -- Table 18: Analysis of variance: independent measure -- Summary -- Goal-corrected empathic attunement and attachment style -- Table 19: Correlation between measures of compulsive caregivingand insecure attachment with the careseekers', caregivers'and the independent scores for empathic attunement -- Chart 7: Goal-corrected attunement score by attachment score -- Chart 8: Mean goal-corrected attunement score by predictedGCEA score -- Results of training: Experimental group -- Table 20: Trained students' average scores: day one and day two -- Table 21: Student, time and student score: an analysis of variance -- Table 22: Student, time and actor score: an analysis of variance -- Table 23: Student, time and independent score: an analysis of variance Results of training: Control group -- Table 24: Average scores for untrained students on day one and daytwo: self-assessment. Actors' scores and empathic attunement scores -- Table 25: Student, time and score: an analysis of variance.

Table 26: Student, time and actor score: an analysis of variance Improvement score -- Table 27: Students' average score at time 1: independent rater -- Table 28: Caregivers' (students') average score at time 2: independentrater -- Table 29: Improvement score for experimental and control groups -- Table 30: Improvement score for careseeker (actor) and caregiver(student) -- Table 31: Student, time and independent score: an analysis of variance Measures -- Attachment style and independent measure of goal-correctedempathic attunement -- Training -- Conclusion -- 11 Patterns of functional and dysfunctional careseeking-caregivingpartnerships -- Introduction -- Extended attachment theory and goal-corrected instinctive systems -- Data -- Interactions patterns and the emotive messages that accompany them -- The regulation or lack of regulation of careseeker vitality statesthrough effective or ineffective misattunement or non-attunementby the caregiver -- Sequences of interaction depicting affect regulation throughpurposeful misattunement to affect -- Affect identification, regulation and containment -- Non-attunement to affect giving rise to self-defence in the careseeking- caregiving partnership -- Instinctive fear system overriding the arousal of exploratory caregiving -- Goal-corrected empathic attunement: amplification of affect andaffect regulation -- Comment -- Careseeking: typical styles of communication -- Caregivers: typical responses to careseeking -- Patterns of interaction associated with effective and ineffectivecaregiving -- Example of a successful consultation -- Summary -- 12 Interactions between therapists and patients and their rootsin infancy -- Introduction -- Theoretical development -- Empirical research -- Subsequent work -- Five styles of careseeking behaviour -- Caregiver responses.

The power of vitality affects to convey emotional states.