Psychoanalysis has long thrived in Latin America. Like the rest of the psychoanalytic world, our Latin American colleagues are diverse in their thinking, but there is nevertheless a distinct cultural voice with which they speak. Unfortunately, language barriers have interfered with the communication of this unique and highly sophisticated way of thinking to colleagues around the world. This stimulating new volume goes a long way to fill this void by presenting a collection of essays that present Latin American psychoanalysis at its best. An added treat is the cross-cultural dialogue provided by commentators for each chapter from other psychoanalytic cultures. I highly recommend this exciting new contribution to both candidates and experienced analysts.
A video of Don Carveth discussing the book and its subject matter can be accessed using the following web URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW7tGq0uEtU Since the classical Freudian and ego psychology paradigms lost their position of dominance in the late 1950s, psychoanalysis became a multi-paradigm science with those working in the different frameworks increasingly engaging only with those in the same or related intellectual "silos." Beginning with Freud’s theory of human nature and civilization, Psychoanalytic Thinking: A Dialectical Critique of Contemporary Theory and Practice proceeds to review and critically evaluate a series of major post-Freudian contributions to psychoanalytic thought. In response to the defects, blind spots and biases in Freud’s work, Melanie Klein, Wilfred Bion, Jacques Lacan, Erich Fromm, Donald Winnicott, Heinz Kohut, Heinrich Racker, Ernest Becker amongst others offered useful correctives and innovations that are, nevertheless, themselves in need of remediation for their own forms of one-sidedness. Through Carveth’s comparative exploration, readers will acquire a sense of what is enduringly valuable in these diverse psychoanalytic contributions, as well as exposure to the dialectically deconstructive method of critique that Carveth sees as central to psychoanalytic thinking at its best. Carveth violates the taboo against speaking of the Imaginary, Symbolic and the Real unless one is a Lacanian, or the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions unless one is a Kleinian, or id, ego, superego, ego-ideal and conscience unless one is a Freudian ego psychologist, and so on. Out of dialogue and mutual critique, psychoanalysis can over time separate the wheat from the chaff, collect the wheat, and approach an ever-evolving synthesis. Psychoanalytic Thinking: A Dialectical Critique of Contemporary Theory and Practice will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists and, more broadly, to readers in philosophy, social science and critical social theory.
Illusion, Disillusion, and Irony in Psychoanalysis explores and develops the role of illusion and daydream in everyday life, and in psychoanalysis. Using both clinical examples and literary works, idealised illusions and the inevitable disillusion that is met when reality makes an impact, are carefully explored. Idealised phantasies which involve a timeless universe inevitably lead to disillusion in the face of reality which introduces an awareness of time, ageing, and eventually death. If the illusions are recognised as phantasy rather than treated as fact, the ideal can be internalised as a symbol and serve as a measure of excellence. Steiner shows that the cruelty of truth needs to be recognised, as well as the deceptive nature of illusion, and that relinquishing omnipotence is a critical and difficult developmental task that is relived in analysis. Illusion, Disillusion, and Irony in Psychoanalysis will be of great use to the psychoanalyst or psychotherapist seeking to understand the patient’s withdrawal into a phantasy world, and the struggle to allow the impact of reality.
In this unusual and much-needed reappraisal of Freud's clinical technique, M. Guy Thompson challenges the conventional notion that psychoanalysis promotes relief from suffering and replaces it with a more radical assertion, that psychoanalysis seeks to mend our relationship with the real that has been fractured by our avoidance of the same. Thompson suggests that, while avoiding reality may help to relieve our experience of suffering, this short-term solution inevitably leads to a split in our existence. M. Guy Thompson forcefully disagrees with the recent trend that dismisses Freud as an historical figure who is out of step with the times. He argues, instead, for a return to the forgotten Freud, a man inherently philosophical and rooted in a Greek preoccupation with the nature of truth, ethics, the purpose of life and our relationship with reality. Thompson's argument is situated in a stunning re-reading of Freud's technical papers, including a new evaluation of his analyses of Dora and the Rat Man in the context of Heidegger's understanding of truth. In this remarkable examination of Freud's technical recommendations, M. Guy Thompson explains how psychoanalysis was originally designed to re-acquaint us with realities we had abandoned by encountering them in the contest of the analytic experience. This provocative examination of Freud's conception of psychoanalysis reveals a more personal Freud than we had previously supposed, one that is more humanistic and real.
Bion Today explores how Bion’s work is used in contemporary settings; how his ideas have been applied at the level of the individual, the group and the organisation; and which phenomena have been made more comprehensible through the lenses of his concepts. The book introduces distinctive psychoanalytic contributions to show the ways in which distinguished analysts have explored and developed the ideas of Wilfred Bion. Drawing on the contributors’ experience of using Bion’s ideas in clinical work, topics include: an introduction to Bion clarification of the inter-related concepts of countertransference and enactment concepts integrating group and individual phenomena clinical implications of Bion’s thought Bion’s approach to psychoanalysis. Bion Today will be a valuable resource for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and all those who are interested in learning more about Bion’s thinking and his work.
Psychoanalysis and Dreams explores some of the cornerstones of Antonino Ferro’s theoretical model but also attempts to extend the dreamlike boundaries of the model. Based on Bion’s theory of alpha function and the analytic field, Ferro has developed his own original theorization of transformations in dreams and of work in the analytic session as a waking dream. Clearly highlighted in the book is Ferro’s theory that transformation in dreams is the activity which is constantly carried out in the mind of the analyst, who nullifies the reality-status of the patient’s communication and considers the patient’s narrative as a dream which must be constructed in real time in the encounter between the two minds at work. At the centre of Ferro's theoretical proposal stands the transition from a psychoanalysis of contents to a psychoanalysis which develops the apparatus for thinking, based on the conception of an unconscious in a perennial state of construction and transformation, which must be dreamed, and which continuously expands as it is dreamed. Psychoanalysis and Dreams is written for practicing and training psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and psychiatrists and will be helpful in everyday psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic work.
What is psychoanalysis? Is it relevant to today’s mental health crisis? How can psychoanalysis help people suffering from psychological distress and illness? This vital new book examines how psychoanalysis has changed since its inception, and how it has adapted to the needs and concerns of 21st-century mental health professionals and patients. The first part of this book provides a concise and unbiased account of the origins of psychoanalysis, and the theories which characterise the main post-Freudian schools – neo-Freudian, Kleinian, interpersonal, self-psychological, Lacanian – and the ways in which they agree and diverge. The second part uses clinical illustrations to examine the practicalities of psychoanalytic technique in the consulting room – assessment, free association, dream analysis, transference, and counter-transference. Whatever their allegiance or role, mental health professionals – psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, child mental health professionals, mental health nurses – need to be conversant with the strengths, relevance, and limitations of the psychoanalytic approach. This book provides an indispensable, up-to-date, and accessible account of psychoanalysis today. Shaped throughout by considering the viewpoint of an interested 21st-century reader, it is of great interest to psychoanalysts and related mental health professionals, as well as students and all those interested in the treatment of mental health.
Psychoanalysis in the Barrios: Race, Class, and the Unconscious demonstrates that psychoanalytic principles can be applied successfully in disenfranchised Latino populations, refuting the misguided idea that psychoanalysis is an expensive luxury only for the wealthy. As opposed to most Latin American countries, where psychoanalysis is seen as a practice tied to the promotion of social justice, in the United States psychoanalysis has been viewed as reserved for the well-to-do, assuming that poor people lack the "sophistication" that psychoanalysis requires, thus heeding invisible but no less rigid class boundaries. Challenging such discrimination, the authors testify to the efficacy of psychoanalysis in the barrios, upending the unfounded widespread belief that poor people are so consumed with the pressures of everyday survival that they only benefit from symptom-focused interventions. Sharing vivid vignettes of psychoanalytic treatments, this collection sheds light on the psychological complexities of life in the barrio that is often marked by poverty, migration, marginalization, and barriers of language, class, and race. This interdisciplinary collection features essays by distinguished international scholars and clinicians. It represents a unique crossover that will appeal to readers in clinical practice, social work, counselling, anthropology, psychology, cultural and Latino studies, queer studies, urban studies, and sociology.
Dealing with the matter of truth Truth has always been a central philosophical category, occupying different fields of knowledge and practice. In the current moment of fake news and alternative facts, it is mandatory to revisit the various meanings of truth. Departing from various approaches to psychoanalytic theory and practice, the authors gathered in this book offer critical reflections and insights about truth and its effects. In articulations of psychoanalysis with (for instance) philosophy, ethics, and politics, the reader will find discussions about issues such as knowledge, love, and clinical practice, all marked by the matter of truth.
This book offers a regional, intersectional, and transnational perspective of psychoanalysis in Latin America and the Caribbean that illuminates psychoanalysis's role as social and political discourse through a collection of original interventions in the fields of psychoanalysis, cultural studies, psychology, anthropology, health sciences, history, and philosophy. The authors contribute to discussions about the applicability of psychoanalytic concepts to reading Latin American and Caribbean sociopolitical phenomona as well as how these regionally specific dimensions challenge and transform traditional psychoanalytic notions. Firstly, the book offers a regional overview of psychoanalysis as a discourse that reflects on the imbrication between the psychic and the sociopolitical. Secondly, it showcases intersectional perspectives that illuminate psychoanalysis's potentials and limitations in addressing contemporary problematics around race, gender, sexuality, and class. Finally, the book attests to the area's role in advancing psychoanalysis as a transnational discipline. By providing both a balanced regional overview and an interdisciplinary perspective, the volume will be essential for all psychoanalysts and scholars wanting to undersrand the place of psychoanalysis in Latin American and Caribbean discourse.
