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Psychoanalysis Under Nazi Occupation: The Origins, Impact and Influence of the Berlin Institute
by Laura SokolowskyLaura Sokolowsky’s survey of psychoanalysis under Weimar and Nazism explores how the paradigm of a ‘psychoanalysis for all’ became untenable as the Nazis rose to power. Mainly discussing the evolution of the Berlin Institute during the period between Freud’s creation of free psychoanalytic centres after the founding of the Weimar Republic and the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, the book explores the ideal of making psychoanalysis available to the population of a shattered country after World War I, and charts how the Institute later came under Nazi control following the segregation and dismissal of Jewish colleagues in the late 1930s. The book shows how Freudian standards resisted the medicalisation of psychoanalysis for purposes of adaptation and normalisation, but also follows Freud’s distinction between sacrifice (where you know what you have given up) and concession (an abandonment of position through compromise) to demonstrate how German psychoanalysts put themselves at the service of the fascist master, in the hope of obtaining official recognition and material rewards. Discussing the relations of psychoanalysis with politics and ethics, as well as the origin of the Lacanian movement as a response to the institutionalisation of psychoanalysis during the Nazi occupation, this book is fascinating reading for scholars and practitioners of psychoanalysis working today.
Psychoanalysis, Violence and Rage-Type Murder: Murdering Minds
by Duncan CartwrightWhat turns an apparently 'normal' individual into a killer?Many people who commit "rage type" murders have no history of violence. Using psychoanalytic theory and a number of case studies, this book isolates key psychological factors that appear to help explain why such acts of extreme violence occur.Starting from a psychoanalytic standpoint, Psychoanalysis, Violence and Rage-Type Murder argues for a pluralistic approach to understanding aggression, and claims that the origins of aggression have no single source or cause. Drawing broadly on psychological, criminological and psychoanalytic research the author outlines the clinical features of the act and explores the possible role that psychopathology and personality might play in the build up to murder. These observations raise a number of questions about the so-called 'normality' of the individual alongside the capacity to commit murder, and how we might understand the stability of such offenders. Psychoanalysis, Violence and Rage-Type Murder will be of great interest to psychotherapists, forensic psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, psychologists, criminologists and health care workers.
Psychoanalysis with Wilfred R. Bion: Contemporary Approaches, Actuality and The Future of Psychoanalytic Practice (The Routledge Wilfred R. Bion Studies Book Series)
by François LévyPsychoanalysis with Wilfred R. Bion is the product of François Lévy’s efforts over a period of twenty years to represent clearly the classical elements and the innovatory propositions of the thought and work of Bion, who offers both new and modified ways of practising and thinking about the psychoanalytic experience. Bion’s thought, methodical and intuitive, gave rise to profound modifications in the approach to the psychology of groups, clinical work with psychoses, and the conception of the genesis of thought. Some of his original notions – psychic growth, processes of thinking, transformations, alpha function, maternal reverie – constitute valuable tools for rethinking psychoanalytic practice. This book places Bion’s thought within a filiation that is faithful to those of Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein. It shows the parallels that exist between Bion’s formalisations and those of Lacan. It also lays emphasis on the mechanisms of thought arising from the negative (André Green), from logic (Lewis Carroll), from causalist philosophy (David Hume), from literature (Milton, Blanchot) and from the physical sciences (Stephen Hawking). Finally, Lévy underlines the importance of placing individuals within the collective from which they have originated. Psychoanalysis with Wilfred R. Bion will appeal to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists looking to draw on the ideas of one of the most important and influential figures in the history of psychoanalysis.
The Psychoanalyst and the Child: From the Consultation to Psychoanalytic Treatment (The International Psychoanalytical Association Psychoanalytic Ideas and Applications Series)
by Michel OdyThe Psychoanalyst and the Child explores the unique nature of psychoanalytic work with children. This book is based on more than 30 years of practice and reflection within the framework of the Alfred Binet Centre in Paris, France. The very great diversity of situations encountered at the Centre brings the issue of therapeutic indications to the forefront. Michel Ody focuses on the diversification of fifteen clinical situations and their theorization, ranging from basic consultation to psychoanalytic treatment. With this framework as his starting-point, he looks at the common features between the therapeutic consultation – a consultation that becomes therapeutic – and the analytic treatment, as well as what differentiates them. This implies examining, at the technical level, the different forms of interventions and interpretations presented as well as their metapsychological articulation. Ody draws on decades of clinical expertise to set out not just the basic considerations and problems typically encountered in work with this patient group, but clear guidelines for methodology and technique. Psychoanalysis can be an intellectual process, dependent on the ability of the patient to express themselves verbally, which can make working clinically with children challenging. The Psychoanalyst and the Child seeks to help psychoanalysts through the most challenging of clinical treatments with this patient group.
The Psychoanalyst, the Theatre of Dreams and the Clinic of Enactment
by R.M.S. CassorlaThis book is recommended to psychoanalysts and therapists interested in the analytical technique, and particularly that work with patients who have deficits in their symbolization capacity. It presents studies of technical aspects of the analytical process with patients who are difficult to reach. Collusions named 'chronic enactments' show that the analytic dyad cannot dream and the analytical field is paralyzed without the analyst perceiving it. Chronic enactments are undone through unconscious acts or behaviours that threaten to destroy the analytical process: behaviours that are named 'acute enactments'. The thorough study of these enactments show that they take the dyad to an awareness of the discrimination between self and object and re-establish the capacity to dream. It is demonstrated that this occurs in an attenuated traumatic form, revealing in the analytical field the externalization of primitive non-dreamed traumas. Clinical, artistic, and mythical models are part of the discussion. The emphasis on clinical aspects allows readers to use different theories to consider the clinical facts. The clinical theories used by the author are mostly post-Kleinian and Bionian.
Psychoanalysts in Session: Clinical Glossary of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (The New Library of Psychoanalysis)
by Andrew Weller Laurent Danon-Boileau Jean-Yves TametPsychoanalysis is an intimate clinical experience and the concepts that it explores aim to grapple with the specific phenomena that unfold when a patient speaks and an analyst listens. This book aims to give concrete examples of how these concepts take shape when analysts work. The structure of the contributions presented in this book matches this concern; drawing on a fragment of an analysis, each contribution illustrates how a notion reveals unforeseen perspectives. The list of entries selected is diverse, with notions encountered in international studies since the Second World War prioritised. Certain classical concepts are nonetheless included when their significance has been shaped by the innovative rereading that contemporary authors have made of them. However, not all the entries in this glossary constitute concepts: some correspond to notions, others to intuitions, and even to recurrent situations with which the analyst is confronted. By grounding, in each entry, the theoretical reflection on a clinical case, the reader is lead towards the incessant to-and-fro process which governs the analyst’s reflections from clinical experience to theory. This book therefore constitutes an essential tool for psychologists, psychoanalysts and all professionals in the field of mental care.
Psychoanalysts, Psychologists and Psychiatrists Discuss Psychopathy and Human Evil (Psychoanalysis in a New Key Book Series)
by Sheldon ItzkowitzEvil - along with its incarnation in human form, the psychopath - remains underexamined in the psychological and psychoanalytic literature. Given current societal issues ranging from increasingly violent cultural divides to climate change, it is imperative that the topics of psychopathy and human evil be thoughtfully explored. The book brings together social scientists, psychologists, and psychoanalysts to discuss the psychology of psychopaths, and the personal, societal and cultural destruction they leave as their legacy. Chapters address such questions as: Who are psychopaths? How do they think and operate? What causes someone to commit psychopathic acts? And are psychopaths born or created? Psychopaths leave us shocked and bewildered by behavior that violates the notions of common human trust and bonding, but not all psychopaths commit crimes. Because of their unique proclivities to deceive, seduce, and dissemble, they can hide in plain sight; especially when intelligent and highly educated. This latter group comprise the "successful or corporate" psychopaths, frequently found in boardrooms of corporations and among leaders of national movements or heads of state. Addressing a wide range of topics including slavery, genocide, the Holocaust, the individual as psychopath, the mind of the terrorist, sexual abuse, the role of attachment and the neurobiology of psychopathy, this book will appeal to researchers of human evil and psychopathy from a range of different disciplines and represents essential reading for psychotherapists and clinical psychologists.
The Psychoanalyst's Superegos, Ego Ideals and Blind Spots: The Emotional Development of the Clinician (The New Library of Psychoanalysis)
by Vic SedlakPsychotherapists and psychoanalysts enter an emotional relationship when they treat a patient; no matter how experienced they may be, their personalities inform but also limit their ability to recognise and give thought to what happens in the consulting room. The Psychoanalyst’s Superegos, Ego Ideals and Blind Spots investigates the nature of these constrictions on the clinician’s sensitivity. Vic Sedlak examines clinicians’ fear of a superego which threatens to become censorious of themselves or their patient and their need to aspire to standards demanded by their ego ideals. These dynamic forces are considered in relation to treatments which fail, to supervision and to recent innovations in psychoanalytic technique. The difficulty of giving thought to hostility is particularly stressed. Richly illustrated with clinical material, this book will enable practitioners to recognise the unconscious forces which militate against their clinical effectiveness.
Psychoanalytic Accounts of Consuming Desire
by John DesmondProvides an accessible introduction to psychoanalytic explanations of consumer desire. Topics are drawn widely to reflect the scope of Freud's vision and include dreams, sexuality and hysteria. Discussion is widened to selectively include authors such as Melanie Klein and Jacques Lacan, and to include evaluation of current research.
Psychoanalytic and Buddhist Reflections on Gentleness: Sensitivity, Fear and the Drive Towards Truth
by Michal Barnea-AstrogInspired by Buddhist teachings and psychoanalytic thought, this book explores gentleness as a way of being and a developmental achievement. It offers reflections on the unique position of "gentle people", as well as certain gentle layers of the psyche in general, as they meet the world. Examining the perceptual-sensory-conscious discrepancy that often exists between a gentle person and their surroundings, it follows the intricate relationship between sensitivity and fear, the need for self-holding, and the possibility of letting go. Incorporating theoretical investigation, clinical vignettes, and personal contemplation, the book looks into those states of mind and qualities of attention that may compose a favorable environment, internal and interpersonal, where gentleness can be delicately held. There, it is suggested, gentleness may gradually shed the fragility, confusion, and destructiveness that often get entangled with it, and serve as a valuable recourse. Offering a unique perspective on a topic rarely discussed, the book has broad appeal for both students and practitioners of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, as well as Buddhist practitioners and scholars.
Psychoanalytic and Cultural Aspects of Trauma and the Holocaust: Between Postmemory and Postmemorial Work
by Rony Alfandary Judith Tydor Baumel-SchwartzPsychoanalytic and Cultural Aspects of Trauma and the Holocaust presents interdisciplinary postmemorial endeavors of second-, third- and fourth-generation Holocaust survivors living in Israel and in the Jewish diaspora. Drawing on a wide range of fields, including psychoanalysis, Holocaust studies, journal and memoir writing, hermeneutics, and the arts, this book considers how individuals dealing with the memory, or postmemory, of the Holocaust possess a personal connection to this trauma. Exploring their role as testimony bearers, each contributor performs their postmemorial work in a unique and creative way, blending the subjective and the objective. The book considers themes including postcolonialism, home, displacement, and identity. Psychoanalytic and Cultural Aspects of Trauma and the Holocaust will be key reading for academics and students of psychoanalytic studies, Holocaust studies, and trauma and cultural studies. It will also be of interest to psychoanalysts working with transgenerational trauma.
Psychoanalytic and Historical Perspectives on the Leadership of Donald Trump: Narcissism and Marketing in an Age of Anxiety and Distrust
by Michael MaccobyWhat is Donald Trump’s personality? Is he mentally ill? What in American culture and history enabled him to become president? How does his personality shape his policies and leadership? In this fascinating and highly relevant new book, these questions are answered by a selection of expert contributors, including psychoanalysts, historians, and a sociologist. Narcissism is defined and applied to Donald Trump, his personal history and style of leadership, and the relationship between Trump and his base is explored as a symptom of his needs and the needs of his followers. U.S. culture and U.S. politics are put under the lens, as chapters draw on contemporary academic and journalistic analysis, continuing discussions around gaslighting, demagoguery, and fascism in terms of their validity in application to Trump. Psychoanalytic and Historical Perspectives on the Leadership of Donald Trump refutes many of the mental health experts who label Trump as suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder and makes the case that Trump’s personality combines a marketing and narcissistic orientation that determines his behavior and policies. The authors also assert that to understand Trump’s rise and his followers, it is valuable to combine psychoanalytic, historical, and sociological perspectives. This book will therefore be of great interest to academics in those fields and all those with an interest in contemporary American politics.
Psychoanalytic and Phenomenological Reflections on Masculinity
by Gunnar KarlssonIn this highly original volume, Gunnar Karlsson offers new answers to the question concerning the relationship between belonging to a specific sex as a male and striving for a masculine identity. This book offers a uniquely psychoanalytic and phenomenological perspective on masculinity. Karlsson considers masculinity and traditional masculine ideals through a psychoanalytic lens before taking phenomenological concepts to chisel out the relationship between sex and gender. This perspective is developed throughout the volume to inspire readers to further their understanding of traditional gender assignment – female, male and intersex – in light of gendered characteristics such as femininity and masculinity. Chapters span topics such as the characteristics of typical, so-called “phallic masculinity”, its allure and psychogenetic explanation, as well as looking at what phallic masculinity disregards. Throughout, Karlsson maintains that phallic masculinity is unattainable, as it seeks to escape the existential conditions of helplessness, vulnerability, and dependence. He makes the case for the importance of considering the notion of ego-identity in the field of sex/gender studies, encouraging a liberation from gender stereotypes. Psychoanalytic and Phenomenological Reflections on Masculinity will be of great interest to researchers, clinical psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, as well as anyone interested in masculinity, gender studies and the relationship between sex and gender.
Psychoanalytic and Psychotherapeutic Perspectives on Stepfamilies and Stepparenting
by Prophecy ColesPsychoanalytic and Psychotherapeutic Perspectives on Step-families and Step-parenting looks at the role step-parents can play in the psychic development of children. Step-parenting requires enormous confidence and resilience that stretches into a territory of human emotions and conflict that can make marriage seem easy. Prophecy Coles’ concern has been that we are witnessing a new kinship system and our psychological thinking has not kept up with the emotional effect that stepparents are having upon the next generation. The author traces the history of our beliefs about stepparents through the oral tradition of the fairy story into our present, arguably prejudiced beliefs about them. Coles explores whether our feelings about stepparents arise from the unconscious tradition that placed stepparents in hostile opposition to the natural forces of parenting. The absence of detailed clinical work on the subject has meant that the author has drawn on interviews, biography and three long term research projects to think about this new family constellation. Covering such topics as the prevalence and importance of step-mothers historically, the reasons for psychoanalytic neglect of this subject, and using clinical material drawn from work with step-mothers, children and fathers, this is a much-needed guide to working with families affected by maternal loss and alternative parenting roles. It will encourage a further appreciation of the psychological difficulties that stepparents face, and at the same time offer a re-appraisal of the pain that young children go through when their parents decide to separate. Psychoanalytic and Psychotherapeutic Perspectives on Step-families and Step-parenting will appeal greatly to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.
A Psychoanalytic and Socio-Cultural Exploration of a Continent: Europe on the Couch
by Anna Zajenkowska Uri LevinThis important book gathers a set of influential international contributors with psychoanalytic and group analytic knowledge to provide a wide-ranging critical analysis of the present state of Europe. Europe is facing huge challenges: waves of immigrants are reshaping its identity and testing its tolerance; Brexit is a destabilizing factor and its outcomes are not yet clear; economic crises continue to threaten; the resurgence of nationalism is threatening an open-borders one-continent ideology. This book tackles some of these challenges. Divided into two parts, the first analyses the current social, political, cultural and economic trends in Europe using psychoanalytic and group analytic concepts, while the second concentrates on existing applications of psychoanalytic and group analytic concepts to help manage national and international change in individual countries as well as on the continent as a whole, including groups for German, Ukrainian and Russian participants; groups organised in Serbia in order to overcome the recent, traumatic past; and the "Sandwich model", developed to enhance communication in situations of conflict, trauma and blocked communication. When we feel threatened, we cling to our in-group and its members. We want to think the same and be the same as our neighbors, but this group illusion of homogeneity conceals the fact that we are different. While homogeneity offers stability, it is diversity that offers freedom. This book will be of great interest to researchers on the present state of Europe from across a range of different disciplines, from psychoanalysis to politics, sociology, economics and international relations.
Psychoanalytic and Socio-Cultural Perspectives on Women in India: Violence, Safety and Survival (Psychoanalysis and Women Series)
by Paula L. EllmanThis important book provides a bridge between psychoanalytic perspectives and socio-cultural issues to shine a spotlight on the experiences of women in India today. Women’s well-being and security has often depended upon their gender positioning while other binaries like rural-urban, class, and caste have also played a crucial role globally and especially in India. Historically, women have been subjected to various forms of oppression that include sex selective abortions, domestic violence, bride burning for dowry, and acid attacks. Threats to women’s security have recently increased with progressive polarization and hardening of socio-political and cultural ideologies. This book assesses how women’s lives are impacted by these social and cultural conventions and stigma, including ideas around motherhood, religion, intimacy and femininity itself, and the psychological implications these have. Topics include the seduction of religion, motherhood in contemporary times, intimacy and violence, and fundamentalist states of mind in the clinical space. While the book echoes a regional specificity, it simultaneously resonates a backdrop of global change of affairs that has its impact on ideological freedom and the concept of inclusivity in terms of gender, race, culture, and politics across the world. For this comprehensive perspective, the effort is to create a platform of authors comprising psychoanalysts, social scientists, scholars from the liberal arts discipline, as well as social activists. In a country where women have been historically subjected to both psychological and physical oppression, this timely and original book will interest a range of scholars interested in gender, mental health and contemporary Indian society, as well as clinicians in the field.
Psychoanalytic and Spiritual Perspectives on Terrorism: Desire for Destruction
by Nina E. CerfolioNina E. Cerfolio masterfully explores the deeper spiritual and psychoanalytic understanding of the origins of human aggressive and destructive instincts which underlie mass shootings and terrorism. The author survived two terrorist attacks: developing breast cancer from being a first responder at 9/11, and being poisoned by an FSB agent while providing humanitarian aid in the Second Chechen War. Through a personal, scholarly investigation into her psyche, the author describes the spiritual awakening that was catalyzed by these events and their traumatic impact, and examines how a world could create the firmament for the kinds of destructive aggression that are a daily occurrence. Featuring cutting-edge quantitative research and case material, which illustrates the prevalence of undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric illness among mass shooters and terrorists, this book encourages dialogue about the stigma of mental illness and challenges the perception of terrorists as monsters with no societal responsibility. Championing the forgotten collective humiliation of the marginalized—which in turn breeds terrorism—and documenting a new spiritual lens through which healing is possible, this book will be essential reading for mental health workers and anyone wishing to understand the traumatizing epoch in which we are living.
A Psychoanalytic Approach to Sexual Difference
by Jennifer YusinA Psychoanalytic Approach to Sexual Difference analyzes the concepts of sex and gender, showing how sexual difference is characterized by ongoing transformations of spatiality and body, and of essentiality and normativity. In this book, Jennifer Yusin presents a psychoanalytic study that engages with clinical cases, philosophies of sex and gender, and psychoanalytic writings about sexual difference. She deftly and accessibly analyzes Freud’s and Lacan’s work on feminine sexuality, Winnicott’s notion of the transitional object, and theories of sexuality and gender developed by Judith Butler and Monique Wittig, among others. Yusin starts with the question of how the lack of any essential definition of sexual difference affects subjectivity. She places an emphasis on the psychoanalytic experience and its effects upon how a subject experiences the difference between being a body and having a body. Following Lacan’s discovery of the Borromean knot structure of the unconscious and the work of the psychoanalyst Jean-Gérard Bursztein, Yusin continues developing subjective topology as a methodology. She also introduces and shows how sexual difference is linked to transformations of sex and body. Through this, Yusin highlights how it is necessary to reformulate sex, gender, and sexual identities in psychoanalytic theories and in the practice of psychoanalysis. She also speaks to the necessity of generating a new lexicon to help analysts speak about sexual difference in ways that do not perpetuate any essentialism or normativity on the topic. This book is essential reading for clinicians in psychoanalysis, mental health practitioners in the trans field, and academics working in gender theory, queer and trans studies, and feminist philosophies.
A Psychoanalytic Approach to Sexual Difference
by Jennifer Yusin1. This book presents an original analysis of sexual difference, emphasising the psychoanalytic experience and its effects upon how a subject experiences the difference between being a body and having a body; 2. Yusin elucidates this potentially muddied (?) area with an approachable writing style, highlighting the tools contemporary analysts need to advance their own notions of sex and gender, as well as how to update their lexicon and approach to the topic; 3. Throughout, Yusin draws on the psychoanalytic theories of Freud, Lacan and Winnicott, as well as theories of sexuality and gender developed by Michel Foucault, Judith Butler and Jack Halberstam;
A Psychoanalytic Approach to Smoking Cessation: The Cigarette as a Transitional Object
by Fung KoA Psychoanalytic Approach to Smoking Cessation: The Cigarette as a Transitional Object provides an accessible understanding to the unconscious motive behind smoking addiction using Winnicott’s concept of the transitional object. The book is divided thematically into six parts. Ko begins by outlining the conscious motives for smoking from a psychological perspective and looks at commercial research conducted by the tobacco industry, before using psychoanalytically informed cross-disciplinary literature to assess the unconscious motives for smoking. She expertly introduces Winnicott’s view on smoking addiction, using his concept of the transitional object, and highlights the power of the Free Association Narrative Interview method in accessing the unconscious and embedded emotional experiences. Using clinical examples, she illustrates the benefits of this method as a tool to elicit free associations from research respondents. She details the parallels between the individual respondents’ smoking experience, as well as their relationship with cigarettes and the seven qualities of transitional objects outlined by Winnicott in his 1953 landmark paper. Ko concludes by emphasising the significance and implications of this thesis to smokers and public health policy, as well as the smoking cessation approach and proposed directions for future research. This book is an essential resource for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists working in smoking cessation organisations, as well as those working in addiction services.
A Psychoanalytic Approach to Treating Psychosis: Genesis, Psychopathology and Case Study
by Franco de MasiA Psychoanalytic Approach to Treating Psychosis shows how, by understanding the antecedents and dynamics of psychosis, a psychoanalytic approach can offer a long-term alternative to the only psychotropic therapy and an explanation of the infantile origin of the illness. This ground-breaking examination begins by clearly explaining complex terms and theories from the most significant thinkers in psychoanalysis. Split into three parts, it then explores the problems faced when following one specific technique for understanding the psychotic process. Practical as well as theoretical, Part 2 illustrates how to prepare an appropriate setting for the patient, including the importance of listening and the analyst’s approach, as well as highlighting key features of the condition, such as delusions, hallucinations, infantile withdrawal and psychotic dreams. Acknowledging that psychosis is a psychic transformation which the mind works as a sensorial organ, the author asserts that the seeds are sown in childhood through emotional trauma, leading to withdrawal into a fantasy world. Brimming with real-life vignettes throughout, Part 3 is dedicated to a unique and lengthy case study to illustrate the challenges of working with such patients. It also looks positively towards future research on psychosis informed by insights from neuroscience. Innovative and accessible, this book will be essential reading for anyone working in psychosis, including psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, psychologists and physicians.
A Psychoanalytic Approach to Visual Artists
by James W. HamiltonJames Hamilton's engaging book offers us his own unique insight into the unconscious factors involved in the creative processes associated with painting, filmmaking, and photography by studying the lives and works of a number of artists, each one having a unique personal style. In separate chapters, he looks at the lives and works of Mark Rothko, Joseph Cornell, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Clement Greenberg, Edward Weston, Ingmar Bergman, Francois Truffaut, Quentin Tarantino, and Florian von Donnersmarck from a psychoanalytic perspective with emphasis on unconscious motivation and the quest for mastery of intrapsychic conflict. The book is bound to encourage further questions and hypotheses about the nature of these complex phenomena.
Psychoanalytic Approaches to Forgiveness and Mental Health
by Ronald Britton Aleksandra NovakovicPsychoanalytic Approaches to Forgiveness and Mental Health considers the role of forgiveness in mental life, concerning both forgiving and being forgiven. Each chapter addresses concepts including superego, repetition compulsion, enactment, and notions such as sacrifice, penance, justification, absolution, and contrition. The contributors consider both their professional and clinical experience and their ethical, cultural, or philosophical background when considering aspects of forgiveness and its impact on clinical practice. The book is an attempt to open the subject of forgiveness, not to reach ethical conclusions nor to formulate pious psychological behavioural axioms. It also considers the weight of feeling unforgiven and of holding the lifelong resentment or vengeful wishes of the unforgiving. Psychoanalytic Approaches to Forgiveness and Mental Health will be key reading for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists in practice and in training and for other professionals interested in the role of forgiveness in mental life. It will also be of interest to academics and students of psychoanalytic studies, philosophy and spirituality.
Psychoanalytic Approaches to Loss: Mourning, Melancholia and Couples
by Timothy Keogh Cynthia Gregory-RobertsPsychoanalytic Approaches to Loss: Mourning, Melancholia and Couples applies psychoanalytic ideas to the clinically complex issue of loss in couples and families and outlines a new model for the treatment of associated unresolved grief. In line with contemporary approaches to couple and family psychoanalysis, this integrated object relations and link theory model provides a clear framework and approach for assessing and treating this clinical presentation. The book brings together contributions from internationally known and respected clinicians and authors who focus on loss, including repeated pregnancy loss, the loss of a child or parent and the loss of a relationship itself. These psychoanalytic couple therapists take the reader inside their consulting rooms, enabling observation of their approaches to the treatment of couples experiencing loss and associated unresolved grief. Psychoanalytic Approaches to Loss: Mourning, Melancholia and Couples will make an important contribution to the literature on grief and mourning and the application of psychoanalytic thinking to couples presenting with difficulties linked to unresolved grief, following loss. It represents an essential resource to psychotherapists, counsellors, family therapists, mental health professionals and many others supporting those experiencing loss.
Psychoanalytic Approaches to Problems in Living: Addressing Life's Challenges in Clinical Practice
by Sandra BuechlerPsychoanalytic Approaches to Problems in Living examines how psychoanalysts can draw on their training, reading, and clinical experience to help their patients address some of the recurrent challenges of everyday life. Sandra Buechler offers clinicians poetic, psychoanalytic, and experiential approaches to problems, drawing on her personal and clinical experience, as well as ideas from her reading, to confront challenges familiar to us all. Buechler addresses issues including difficulties of mourning, aging, living with uncertainty, finding meaningful work, transcending pride, bearing helplessness, and forgiving life's hardships. For those contemplating a clinical career, and those in its beginning stages, she suggests ways to prepare to face these quandaries in treatment sessions. More experienced practitioners will find echoes of themes that have run through their own clinical and personal life experiences. The chapters demonstrate that insights from a poem can often guide the clinician as well as concepts garnered from psychoanalytic theory and other sources. Buechler puts her questions to T. S. Eliot, Rainer Maria Rilke, Elizabeth Bishop, W. S. Merwin, Stanley Kunitz and many other poets and fiction writers. She "asks" Sharon Olds how to meet emergencies, Erich Fromm how to live vigorously, and Edith Wharton how to age gracefully, and brings their insights to bear as she addresses challenges that make frequent appearances in clinical sessions, and other walks of life. With a final section designed to improve training in the light of her practical findings, Psychoanalytic Approaches to Problems in Living is an essential book for all practicing psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.