Prejudice occurs between large groups and is experienced by members of those groups. Within the individual, these large group identifications are integrated into a dimension of the self-concept called collective identity. When collective identity is salient, people tend to perceive themselves and others as large group members, rather than as individuals. At those times, there is less differentiation between the self and the large group. We can say that the person is overidentified with the large group. Prejudice is an outcome of this overidentification. Our effort to understand the problem of prejudice requires that we examine both intrapsychic and environmental factors that may lead to an overidentification. In particular, a relational perspective directs our attention to the relationship between the individual and the large groups that make up his or her collective identity. This is called an ingroup, as opposed to outgroups (not part of one's collective identity). From this perspective, prejudice can be understood to be an aberration between the person and the ingroup, in which an overidentification occurs, rather than a problem between the person and an outgroup. How this occurs developmentally, intrapsychically, and environmentally and affects individuals is the subject of the book. Throughout the book, Aviram integrates empirical work from social psychology with theoretical and clinical examples from psychoanalysis in order to show the potential overlap of concepts used in both disciplines.

Presence and the Present: Relationship and Time in Contemporary Psychodynamic Therapy offers an applied perspective on psychodynamic psychotherapy relevant to contemporary practice. Emphasizing the therapeutic relationship and the dimension of time, it grounds the discussion i...

This book presents the unconscious mind as the product of interpersonal interaction—in its formation and in its growth and development across the life cycle. Many clinical examples illustrate the theory of the interpersonal unconscious and its application to individual psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, couple and family therapy, and child therapy, and to teaching mental health professionals nationally and internationally.

How We Became Human: A Challenge to Psychoanalysis tackles the question of what distinguishes human beings from other animals. By interweaving psychoanalysis, biology, physics, anthropology, and philosophy, Julio Moreno advances a novel thesis: human beings are faulty animals in their understanding of the world around them. This quality renders humans capable of connecting with inconsistencies, those events or phenomena that their logic cannot understand. The ability to go beyond consistency is humans’ distinctive trait. It is the source of their creativity and of their ability to modify the environment they inhabit. On the basis of this connective-associative interplay, Moreno proposes a new approach to the links human beings create amongst themselves and with the world around them. This theory focuses on a key question: What is the difference between human beings and the other animals? From this perspective, Moreno seeks to reformulate many of the classic psychoanalytic, psychological, and anthropological postulates on childhood, links, and psychic change.

Salman Akhtar is a Professor of Psychiatry, a Training and Supervising Analyst, a member of numerous editorial boards, winner of many awards, including the highly prestigious Sigourney Award, a writer of several hundred articles, a poet, and the author or editor of over one hundred books. A modern-day Renaissance man, his elegant writing is simultaneously scholarly and literary and brings a light touch to profound material. Phoenix Publishing House is proud to present his most inspiring works in a stunning ten-volume hardback set, fit to grace the shelves of collectors and libraries with its high-quality finish.

During the course of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with couples, the practicing clinician is commonly faced with problems and issues that at times can seem nearly insoluble. Integrating the rich ideas and techniques from two psychoanalytic traditions, object relations and relational theory, Object Relations and Relationality in Couple Therapy: Exploring the Middle Ground surveys those problems, reviews the theoretical background for understanding their underlying dynamics, and offers effective and practical solutions for their resolution.