Interview with Russell Meares

Tony Korner interviews Professor Meares to create this interesting insight into the development of the Conversational Model.

The Conversational Model originally developed in response to the challenges presented to traditional psychoanalytic approaches by patients that were considered ‘unanalyzable’. It was amongst the first to emphasize the importance of relational trauma as a major unconscious influence on personal development, challenging the dominance of drive theory over much of the 20^th Century. The CM also highlights the crucial importance of play and intimacy in the development of self and is one of few approaches to psychotherapy that have been substantively developed in Australia. The CM seeks to integrate therapeutic practice with understanding from many disciplines including psychiatry, neuroscience, psychoanalysis, linguistics, literature and philosophy. Few people have, through their teaching and writing, shown a greater capacity for integrative thinking than Russell Meares.