Psychoanalysis and Covidian Life


Book Description

Showcasing a diverse range of contributions from psychoanalysts of many different countries and theoretical orientations, Psychoanalysis and Covidian Life, a collective work edited by Howard B. Levine and Ana de Staal, offers readers the opportunity to explore and reflect upon the ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic has begun to influence analytical practice. From the changes imposed on the framework (online sessions) to the impact of the trauma of isolation and the disruption of our social anchoring (required by confinement and health protection gestures), to the challenge presented to the 'ordinary' denial of mortality, this book explores the lessons of what the pandemic can teach us about how to understand and treat collective distress individually and puts psychoanalytical tools to the test of the profound psychosocial upheavals that the twenty-first century may hold in store. This book will be of interest to practising and trainee clinicians and anyone with an interest in the all-consuming effects of a global pandemic. Contributions from Christopher Bollas, Patricia Cardoso de Mello, Bernard Chervet, Joshua Durban, Antonino Ferro, Serge Frisch, Steven Jaron, Daniel Kupermann, Howard Levine, Francois Levy, Riccardo Lombardi, Elias & Alberto Rocha Barros, Michael Rustin, Ana de Staal, and Jean-Jacques Tyszler.




Psychoanalysis and Covidian Life: Common Distress, Individual Experience


Book Description

Bringing together a dozen contributions from psychoanalysts of many different countries and theoretical orientations, Psychoanalysis and Covidian Life, a collective work edited by Howard Levine and Ana de Staal, offers readers the opportunity to explore and reflect upon the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to influence analytical practice. From the changes imposed on the framework (online sessions) to the impact of the trauma of isolation and the disruption of our social anchoring (required by confinement and health protection gestures), to the challenge presented to the 'ordinary' denial of mortality, this book explores the lessons of what the pandemic can teach us about how to understand and treat collective distress individually and puts psychoanalytical tools to the test of the profound psychosocial upheavals that the twenty-first century may hold in store.




Psychoanalysis and Covidian Life


Book Description

Showcasing a diverse range of contributions from psychoanalysts of many different countries and theoretical orientations, Psychoanalysis and Covidian Life, a collective work edited by Howard B. Levine and Ana de Staal, offers readers the opportunity to explore and reflect upon the ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic has begun to influence analytical practice. From the changes imposed on the framework (online sessions) to the impact of the trauma of isolation and the disruption of our social anchoring (required by confinement and health protection gestures), to the challenge presented to the 'ordinary' denial of mortality, this book explores the lessons of what the pandemic can teach us about how to understand and treat collective distress individually and puts psychoanalytical tools to the test of the profound psychosocial upheavals that the twenty-first century may hold in store. This book will be of interest to practising and trainee clinicians and anyone with an interest in the all-consuming effects of a global pandemic. Contributions from Christopher Bollas, Patricia Cardoso de Mello, Bernard Chervet, Joshua Durban, Antonino Ferro, Serge Frisch, Steven Jaron, Daniel Kupermann, Howard Levine, Francois Levy, Riccardo Lombardi, Elias & Alberto Rocha Barros, Michael Rustin, Ana de Staal, and Jean-Jacques Tyszler.




Christopher Bollas


Book Description

This book provides a clear and accessible overview of the seminal clinical thinking of Christopher Bollas. Placing Bollas’s writings besides those of analysts including Milner, Bion, Winnicott, Lacan, and Green, Steven Jaron examines the central concept of the unthought known in terms of unconscious communication in the primary environment while occasioning a reworking of Oedipal configurations. Through vivid narratives of character analyzing a range of adult patients, at times requiring a rethinking of the conventional psychoanalytic frame, Jaron offers a fresh perspective on Bollas in arguing for the importance of considering not only the patient’s self experience but also the psychoanalyst's. This important study will be rewarding to beginning and seasoned analysts alike, offering suggestions for using Bollas’ work in the consulting room as well as when faced with the demands of civic life today.




The Virtual Couch


Book Description

This book is one of the first systematic examinations on the looming mental health crisis emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic from a psychoanalytic perspective. Bringing together practising therapists from Asia and Europe, this book: analyses themes like anxiety, depression, sexuality, loss and death through clinical vignettes highlights how children, adolescents and adults have been responding to the pandemic explores how personal and collective trauma are mourned, remembered, repeated and worked through studies deep-seated prejudices and fears focuses on how the pandemic has stimulated exceptional manifestations of human solidarity and creativity Comprehensive and practical, this book will be an essential guide for mental health professionals, counsellors, therapists and medical doctors treating psychological trauma.




Living and Containing Psychoanalysis in Institutions


Book Description

Encompassing diverse perspectives on the psychoanalyst as individual, social being, and member of psychoanalytic institutions, this book provides practical and informed answers to the question of how psychoanalysts can take care of their psychoanalytic institutions. The book draws urgent attention to concerns about how the field of psychoanalysis can be sustained into the future, and sets out several studies in institutional dynamics as a form of provocation for psychoanalysts to reflect on their position as members of the institution and to act courageously in their collective efforts. Correlations between institutional dynamics and familial relationships are emphasized, alongside varied and detailed accounts of the styles of leadership required to facilitate improved cooperation in psychoanalytic institutions. The authors draw on their experiences as group participants, leaders and observers at both local and supranational levels, to investigate the historical context underpinning the disillusion among psychoanalysts, offering readers richly informed perspectives on how to nurture collegial ethics. With an emphasis on a shared ethics of responsibility, and the work involved in building secure professional relationships among psychoanalytic groups of all kinds, this book will prove essential to those engaged in understanding the work involved in psychoanalysis, whether in training or in practice.




The Oxford Handbook of Decadence


Book Description

Edited by Jane Desmarais and David Weir.




Unrepresented States and the Construction of Meaning


Book Description

In the last several decades, the analytic field has widened considerably in scope. The therapeutic task is now seen by an increasing number of analysts to require that patient and analyst work together to strengthen, or to create, psychic structure that was previously weak, missing, or functionally inoperative. This view, which may apply to all patients, but is especially relevant to the treatment of non-neurotic patients and states of mind, stands in stark contrast to the more traditional assumption that the therapeutic task involves the uncovering of the unconscious dimension of a present pathological compromise formation that holds a potentially healthy ego in thrall. The contrast which this book calls attention to is that which exists roughly between formulations of psychic structure and functioning that were once assumed to have been sufficiently well explained by the hypotheses of Freud's topographic theory and those that were not. The former are modeled on neurosis and dream interpretation, where conflicts between relatively well-defined (saturated) and psychically represented desires were assumed to operate under the aegis of the pleasure-unpleasure principle.




Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis in a Changing World


Book Description

This book applies psychoanalytic insight to work with children and adolescents in a changing, often traumatic, world. Each chapter considers how psychoanalysis can develop and be developed, assessing how in the modern world, psychological disturbance and psychological trauma is manifest in new, unfamiliar ways. From new and different social and technological realities, to the internet, and new sexual discourse, each chapter explores how the analyst can hold onto fundamental psychoanalytic understandings of mental functioning, address the young patient’s or family’s need for containment, while respecting the importance of drives, the varieties of psychosexuality, and the powerful impact of anxiety on psychological development. In relation to children, these authors disclose the potential destructiveness of impingements from adults on a precious, vulnerable development. This collection is essential reading for all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well as other health and educational professionals working with children and adolescents.




Theatre, Sacrifice, Ritual: Exploring Forms of Political Theatre


Book Description

In this fascinating volume, acclaimed theatre historian Erika Fischer-Lichte reflects on the role and meaning accorded to the theme of sacrifice in Western cultures as mirrored in particular fusions of theatre and ritual. Theatre, Sacrifice, Ritual presents a radical re-definition of ritual theatre through analysis of performances as diverse as: Max Reinhardt's new people's theatre the mass spectacles of post-revolutionary Russia American Zionist pageants the Olympic Games. In offering both a performative and a semiotic analysis of such performances, Fischer-Lichte expertly demonstrates how theatre and ritual are fused in order to tackle the problem of community-building in societies characterised by loss of solidarity and disintegration, and exposes the provocative connection between the utopian visions of community they suggest, and the notion of sacrifice. This innovative study of twentieth-century performative culture boldly examines the complexities of political theatre, propaganda and manipulation of the masses, and offers a revolutionary approach to the study of theatre and performance history.