Humans are weak. Lacking the claws and thick skins of other animals, we are forced to rely on members of our own species to survive and flourish in the world. The fact that the human infant is born in an utterly helpless state also makes others' protective care necessary. Attachment, bonding, concern, and mutuality thus become cornerstones of human existence. Trust also enters this equation. Originating in the early mother-child relationship, trust continues to grow, get contextually refined tempered by reality testing, and gain nuances throughout the subsequent adult life. Its absence...

This is a book about death, loss, grief and mourning, but with an unusual twist. It is different in that it explores specific kinds of deaths encountered within families and households, rather than general concepts of mourning. It is even more unusual because here six psychoanalysts reveal how they have suffered, processed, and survived losses in their own lives; at the same time bringing clinical and theoretical perspectives of various psychoanalytic schools to bear on their own, as well as others', experiences.

The narratives in this book use the power of subjective experience,...

Divorce: Emotional Impact and Therapeutic Interventions offers a broad survey of psychodynamic observations on the antecedents and consequences of divorce. In this volume, distinguished clinical psychologists and psychoanalysts explore the emotional divorce that invariably precedes the one granted by a court and focus as well upon the emotional impact of the actual divorce upon the spouses, children, friends, and family. Examining a variety of modern families, chapters address both short-term and long-term sequelae of divorce, transgenerational reverberations, and the occasional, unsung...

Divorce: Emotional Impact and Therapeutic Interventions offers a broad survey of psychodynamic observations on the antecedents and consequences of divorce. In this volume, distinguished clinical psychologists and psychoanalysts explore the emotional divorce that invariably precedes the one granted by a court and focus as well upon the emotional impact of the actual divorce upon the spouses, children, friends, and family. Examining a variety of modern families, chapters address both short-term and long-term sequelae of divorce, transgenerational reverberations, and the occasional, unsung...