ABSTRACT

Written in the form of letters from an experienced analyst to a young colleague, Letters to a Young Psychoanalyst expands the psychoanalytic frame to include South American, French, and British theory, and examine a wide variety of theoretical and clinical topics.

Letters to a Young Psychoanalyst is ground-breaking in more than one respect. It re-examines major psychoanalytic theories in the light of rich clinical practice, and in the light of the practice of friendship, whilst portraying the practice of analysis as the choice of a personal code of ethics. Covering such core issues as transference, trauma, hysteria, the influence of the mother, and love and hate, and drawing on the work of notable analysts such as Winnicott, McDougall, Pankow and Ferenczi, the book explores the many facets of healing function of psychoanalysis in practice and discloses the workings of the psyche in human existence.

This book considers psychoanalysis a humanist endeavour, focussing on its healing function and using captivating examples to illustrate different modes of commitment on the part of the analyst. Rejecting a view of psychoanalysis as a painful and laborious process, the book insists instead on the joyous and passionate nature of the work of psychic elaboration. Uniquely, the transmission of knowledge and skill which it provides, constituting a veritable training, is not at all didactic in tone. It places the two interlocutors, as well as the reader, on the same level: people who share the desire to remain attentive to themselves and to others, and who believe that empathy heals, within the setting of therapy and in human relations in general.

Written in a remarkably engaging and accessible style, Letters to a Young Psychoanalyst will appeal to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, students of all levels studying in these fields, as well as lay readers wishing to understand fundamental psychoanalytic concepts.

part |2 pages

Introduction

chapter |3 pages

Letter 1 The interlocutor

chapter |3 pages

Letter 2 The young psychoanalyst

chapter |3 pages

Letter 3 The setting

chapter |3 pages

Letter 5 Couch or chair

chapter |4 pages

Letter 6 Transference

chapter |6 pages

Letter 7 The Ferenczi predicament

chapter |7 pages

Letter 9 Gisela Pankow and her teaching

chapter |7 pages

Letter 12 Helio Pellegrino

chapter |3 pages

Letter 13 Humour

part |2 pages

Letter 15 The player

chapter |4 pages

Letter 18 Money

chapter |4 pages

Letter 19 Transference and friendship

chapter |8 pages

Letter 20 Hysteria

chapter |3 pages

Letter 21 The therapist

chapter |3 pages

Letter 25 Psychic health

chapter |3 pages

Letter 26 Trust

chapter |3 pages

Letter 27 The divine part of man

chapter |3 pages

Letter 29 The inner mother

part |2 pages

Letter 30 Writing