Psychoanalysis is concerned with the vicissitudes of life: loss, grief, mourning, guilt, and also with reparation and creativity, with death and rebirth--as is the work of Shakespeare. In today's world we are moved by Shakespeare's plays because these themes are brought to life with a richness and creativity that has not dimmed with the passing of time. Echoing Freud's fascination with Shakespeare, the contributors find much to feast on in King Lear, Twelfth Night, All's Well That Ends Well, The Tempest, Macbeth, and The Winter's Tale. They weave an enticing thread, linking the bard's...

This is the first collection of papers published which spans work with autistic children and autistic features in adults. Many of the adult patients described are less ill than autistic children whose development has ground to a halt at an early age, but at the core of their difficulties can be found autistic features remarkably similar to those of the more floridly disturbed children. This leads several writers to conclude that autistic features are to be found in many adults--some would say in all of us. The insights contained in these papers open up access to deep levels of the human...

The concern with time permeates Freud's work, from Studies on Hysteria to Analysis Terminable and Interminable, which point out to a network of concepts that indicate Freud's complex theories on temporality.

Indeed no other psychoanalytic thinker has put forward such revolutionary vision on the dimensions of time in human existence. This volume brings together some of the most important papers written on the topic by members of the British Psychoanalytic Society. In the richness of the detailed clinical discussions the ways in which patients deal with time and memory are viewed as...

Here, shame and jealousy are examined as hidden turmoils; as basic human feelings found in everyone but often suppressed and neglected. An unfulfilled need, unanswered plea for help, and failure to connect with and understand other people are all underlying causes for shame and feeling inadequate. Published for the Institute of Psychoanalysis by Karnac.

This compact but comprehensive survey of the concept of the superego is very much to be welcomed.

Starting with an account of how Freud elaborated, over many years, the idea of an agency within a person's mind which monitors and passes judgement on the person, Barnett goes on to describe the evolution of the superego from infancy to adulthood. He considers different views of this development and its chronology, and also how various analytic orientations have conceptualized the operation of the mature superego. With an examination of the Holocaust, he shows how the superego's...

Because psychoanalysis is a science of subjectivity, it is no surprise that symbolism has been of central interest from its inception and early development.

There are few phenomena more obviously subjective than symbols. They conjure a particular fascination because of their enigmatic quality. For this reason, they manage to communicate something in an obscure manner. Thus, they partly hide. This duality and ambiguity approaches the fleeting and evanescent quality of subjectivity itself at its most subjective. Thinking in this descriptive way is not the most immediately helpful...

The proceedings of the of the conference on the Psychoanalytic Therapy of Severe Disturbance held in Belfast in June 2008. The aim of the conference was to offer a state of the art communication of the key psychoanalytic thinking and approaches to the conceptualization and treatment of severe disturbance. The result of a unique gathering of the most eminent psychoanalysts in the field with insights into their work on personality disorder, psychotic states and the nature and function of suicidal ideation.This book will be of interest to mental health professionals--psychiatrists,...

This book is about how we can deepen our understanding of subjectivity through the use of the concept of triangulation. Fundamentally, this book seeks to address the question of how we can be objective about subjectivity. If psychology, as a scientific discipline, is concerned with the study of human experience, which is essentially subjective, then we are faced with the problem of how to apply the scientific method as it is commonly understood. If experience is essentially unique to the experiencer, then there seems to be a basic incompatibility with the scientific method. As currently...

This book is about the psychological experiences of women and men who have used donor conception to create their families. The 2005 amendment to legislation in the UK gives donor-conceived young people the right to identify information concerning their origins when they reach the age of eighteen. Genetic links between the donors' families and recipient families are creating new patterns of relationships with significant psychological implications.

The authors in this book offer accounts of their diverse clinical research and personal experiences. They describe the challenge of...

The book illustrates the distinctive psychoanalytic contribution to mental health services for children, young people, and adults with detailed case vignettes illustrating therapeutic treatment and the ways in which staff are supported to do work that is frequently difficult and disturbing.

Psychoanalytic thinking contributes to effective mental health work on many levels, from Balint's "Flash" technique in the brief GP/patient encounter to the psychiatric medical and nursing care in secure units, where the most challenging patients need to be held. Starting with the historical...