Psychoanalysis The Self And The World

This book takes psychoanalysis into the 21st century, examining issues of existentialism, postphenomenology, social media, and death and death anxiety that have gone largely ignored in the psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic literature. Using an interdisciplinary perspective, Leffert explains that it is impossible to close the door of the consulting room. The therapeutic relationship is invaded by the outside world and its relationships for both patient and therapist and cannot be isolated from these influences. Drawing on richly detailed case studies, Leffert demonstrates how the internet, social media, and the metaverse have changed and expanded the self in ways that could not have been imagined in the last century. In turn, Leffert acknowledges recent advances in the neurosciences, and addresses the lack of engagement with their implications for theories and practices of therapeutic action. Finally, the ways in which death and death anxiety impinge on the self, which have also gone mostly undealt with in psychoanalytic literature, become an important focus of this book. As a novel exploration of interdisciplinary connections, this book will be of use to both scholars and practitioners of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, social network theory, philosophy, and neuroscience.

Psychoanalysis, Society, and the Inner World explores ideas from psychoanalysis that can be valuable in understanding social processes and institutions and in particular, how psychoanalytic ideas and methods can help us understand the nature and roots of social and political conflict in the contemporary world. Among the ideas explored in this book, of special importance are the ideas of a core self (Heinz Kohut and Donald Winnicott) and of an internal object world (Melanie Klein, Ronald Fairbairn). David Levine shows how these ideas, and others related to them, offer a framework for understanding how social processes and institutions establish themselves as part of the individual’s inner world, and how imperatives of the inner world influence the shape of those processes and institutions. In exploring the contribution psychoanalytic ideas can make to the study of society, emphasis is placed on post-Freudian trends that emphasize the role of the internalization of relationships as an essential part of the process of shaping the inner world. The book’s main theme is that the roots of social conflict will be found in ambivalence about the value of the self. The individual is driven to ambivalence by factors that exist simultaneously as part of the inner world and the world outside. Social institutions may foster ambivalence about the self or they may not. Importantly, this book distinguishes between institutions on the basis of whether they do or do not foster ambivalence about the self, shedding light on the nature and sources of social conflict. Institutions that foster ambivalence also foster conflict at a societal level that mirrors and is mirrored by conflict over the standing of the self in the inner world. Levine makes extensive use of case material to illuminate and develop his core ideas. Psychoanalysis, Society, and the Inner World will appeal to psychoanalysts and to social scientists interested in psychoanalytic ideas and methods, as well as students studying across these fields who are keen to explore social and political issues.

There are two foundational thinkers in the history of psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud and Heinz Kohut. Though Kohut is much less well known, he revolutionized psychoanalytic theory and the practice of psychotherapy. In a burst of creativity from the mid-1960s until his death in 1981, he reimagined the field in a way that made it open, mutual, relational, and inclusive. His conceptualization of a holistic self that is in an ongoing relationship with others represented a paradigm shift from the purely intrapsychic Freudian model of id/ego/superego. In The New World of Self, Charles B. Strozier, Konstantine Pinteris, Kathleen Kelley, and Deborah Cher draw upon their deep knowledge of Kohut's extensive and diverse writing to understand the full significance of his thinking. His self psychology released psychoanalysis from the inherent limits created by its theoretical dependence on drive theory. Kohut instead focused on immediate experience. He also embraced historical themes, leadership and culture, literature from Kafka to O'Neill, the psychology of music, much about art, and a theory of religion and spirituality for modern sensibilities. Acquainting the work of this eminent psychoanalytic theorist to a new generation of clinicians and scholars, The New World of Self unpacks the transformative research of Heinz Kohut and highlights his significance in the history of psychoanalysis.

Is psychoanalysis a narrative of self-knowledge, or a movement of lived time and the body? Psychoanalysis and the Time of Life examines the relationship between therapy and the time of life, presenting an original and thought-provoking re-reading of psychoanalysis in relation to questions of lived time. Jan Campbell investigates the early work of Freud, Janet, Breuer and Ferenczi, linking their ideas to the philosophy of Bergson. The link between psychoanalysis and the question of time connects these early debates with current issues that are central to our global society. Questions considered include: • is the unconscious based on representation or affect? • is the Oedipal Complex hysterical? • how is therapy related to the time of our life? • what is the role of hypnosis, in relation to psychoanalytic theory and transference? • Freud conceptualised the unconscious as timeless space, but what would it mean to think of the unconscious as the very essence of psychic bodily time? This book draws on the fields of traditional psychoanalysis, philosophy, neuroscience, and trauma studies providing a valuable new perspective on familiar concepts such as identity and consciousness. It will be of interest to students across the humanities and social sciences, and practicing psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.

Stolorow and his collaborators' post-Cartesian psychoanalytic perspective – intersubjective-systems theory – is a phenomenological contextualism that illuminates worlds of emotional experience as they take form within relational contexts. After outlining the evolution and basic ideas of this framework, Stolorow shows both how post-Cartesian psychoanalysis finds enrichment and philosophical support in Heidegger's analysis of human existence, and how Heidegger's existential philosophy, in turn, can be enriched and expanded by an encounter with post-Cartesian psychoanalysis. In doing so, he creates an important psychological bridge between post-Cartesian psychoanalysis and existential philosophy in the phenomenology of emotional trauma.

In Self and Other, Robert Rogers presents a powerful argument for the adoption of a theory of object relations, combining the best features of traditional psychoanalytic theory with contemporary views on attachment behavior and intersubjectivity. Rogers discusses theory in relation both to actual psychoanalytic case histories and imagined selves found in literature, and provides a critical rereading of the case histories of Freud, Winnicott, Lichtenstein, Sechehaye, and Bettelheim. At once scientific and humanistic, Self and Other engagingly draws from theoretical, clinical, and literary traditions. It will appeal to psychoanalysts as well as to literary scholars interested in the application of psychoanalysis to literature.