Psychoanalysis: Clinical Theory and Practice

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This volume is the record of more than forty years of clinical experience in the practice and teaching of psychoanalysis. The papers touch on practically all aspects of clinical experience, exploring the problems and explicating them in terms of structural theory. Throughout the book, the importance of the underlying concept of unconscious fantasy as a methodological tool is stressed. Alterations in ego functioning and ego states are seen as derivative expressions or compromise formations of unconscious conflicts. The book contains new insights into such phenomena as depersonalization and deja vu and discusses hitherto undescribed aspects of the psychology of twins, the only child, affective states, and symptom formation. Psychoanalysis: Clinical Theory and Practice also undertakes a critical approach to the theory of technique, emphasizing the elements that enter into appropriate interpretation of clinical data. The theoretical assumptions underlying psychoanalytic therapy are elaborated in terms of psychoanalytic structural theory. In general, therefore, the papers in this book propose a scientifically parsimonious approach to the understanding of mental phenomena and to the application of psychoanalytic therapy.