Contemporary Clinical Practice: The Holding Environment Under Assault is devoted to the examination of contemporary social problems and their impact on the clinical process. State-of-the-art psychodynamic theories will be applied to the understanding of how war, terrorism, politics, government regulations, and other environmental problems influence interactions between clinicians and their patients.

Introduction: The World Outside and its Impact on the Treatment Process.- Shared Trauma and Self-Disclosure in the Therapeutic Process.- The Erosion of the Socio-Political Holding Environment and Potential Space for Creative Repair in Treatment.- Grief and Loss in an Age of Global Trauma: Protest and Despair vs. Attachment and Reorganization.- Integrating the Internal and External Worlds of Clinical Social Work.- What Happens to Confidentiality When the Government Enters the Treatment Room via the Patriot Act, HIPPA, and Managed Care?.- The Influence of Outside Forces on Social Work Education.- Real Experiences Revisited: The Significance of Attachment, Separation, and Loss in Clinical Social Work Treatment.- Psychoanalysis and Social Critique.- Considerations for Psychoanalytic Treatment in a Time of War.