This book includes the development of the concept of "splitting" from both metapsychological and clinical perspectives, emphasizing the great importance of this topic for contemporary psychoanalysis. Starting with the history of the concept, the book covers recent French, English and Latin American theorizations on the theme. In regard to clinical approaches it presents the relationship between the "splitting" and complex clinical cases such as borderline, perverse and psychosomatic conditions. The book also includes aspects of "splitting" and virtual reality, as well as in traumatic situations: factors so important in contemporary life. The premise behind this work was to invite authors from different regions and orientations to promote a fruitful debate on the theme, thus enriching one of Sigmund Freud's most seminal concepts.

"This book includes the development of the concept of "splitting" from both metapsychological and clinical perspectives, emphasizing the great importance of this topic for contemporary psychoanalysis. Starting with the history of the concept, the book covers recent French, English and Latin American theorizations on the theme. In regard to clinical approaches it presents the relationship between the "splitting" and complex clinical cases such as borderline, perverse and psychosomatic conditions. The book also includes aspects of "splitting" and virtual reality, as well as in traumatic situations: factors so important in contemporary life. The premise behind this work was to invite authors from different regions and orientations to promote a fruitful debate on the theme, thus enriching one of Sigmund Freud's most seminal concepts."--Provided by publisher.

This much-awaited textbook makes accessible the ideas of one of the most important thinkers of our time, as well as indicating how Freud’s theories are put into clinical practice today. The collection of papers have been written by some of the most eminent psychoanalysts, both from Britain and abroad, who have made an original contribution to psychoanalysis. Each chapter introduces one of Freud’s key texts, and links it to contemporary thinking in the field of psychoanalysis. The book combines a deep understanding of Freud’s work with some of the most modern debates surrounding it. This book will be of great value across a wide spectrum of courses in psychoanalysis, as well as to the scholar interested in psychoanalytic ideas.

This Encyclopedia provides a comprehensive overview of individual differences within the domain of personality, with major sub-topics including assessment and research design, taxonomy, biological factors, evolutionary evidence, motivation, cognition and emotion, as well as gender differences, cultural considerations, and personality disorders. It is an up-to-date reference for this increasingly important area and a key resource for those who study intelligence, personality, motivation, aptitude and their variations within members of a group.

Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory provides a masterful overview of the central issue concerning psychoanalysts today: finding a way to deal in theoretical terms with the importance of the patient's relationships with other people. Just as disturbed and distorted relationships lie at the core of the patient's distress, so too does the relation between analyst and patient play a key role in the analytic process. All psychoanalytic theories recognize the clinical centrality of “object relations,” but much else about the concept is in dispute. In their ground-breaking exercise in comparative psychoanalysis, the authors offer a new way to understand the dramatic and confusing proliferation of approaches to object relations. The result is major clarification of the history of psychoanalysis and a reliable guide to the fundamental issues that unite and divide the field. Greenberg and Mitchell, both psychoanalysts in private practice in New York, locate much of the variation in the concept of object relations between two deeply divergent models of psychoanalysis: Freud's model, in which relations with others are determined by the individual's need to satisfy primary instinctual drives, and an alternative model, in which relationships are taken as primary. The authors then diagnose the history of disagreement about object relations as a product of competition between these disparate paradigms. Within this framework, Sullivan's interpersonal psychiatry and the British tradition of object relations theory, led by Klein, Fairbairn, Winnicott, and Guntrip, are shown to be united by their rejection of significant aspects of Freud's drive theory. In contrast, the American ego psychology of Hartmann, Jacobson, and Kernberg appears as an effort to enlarge the classical drive theory to accommodate information derived from the study of object relations. Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory offers a conceptual map of the most difficult terrain in psychoanalysis and a history of its most complex disputes. In exploring the counterpoint between different psychoanalytic schools and traditions, it provides a synthetic perspective that is a major contribution to the advance of psychoanalytic thought.

Winner of the 2010 Sigourney Award! Reading Freud provides an accessible outline of the whole of Freud's work from Studies in Hysteria through to An Outline of Psycho-Analysis. It succeeds in expressing even the most complex of Freud's theories in clear and simple language whilst avoiding over-simplification. Each chapter concentrates on an individual text and includes valuable background information, relevant biographical and historical details, descriptions of Post-Freudian developments and a chronology of Freud's concepts. By putting each text into the context of Freud's life and work as a whole, Jean-Michel Quinodoz manages to produce an overview which is chronological, correlative and interactive. Texts discussed include: The Interpretation of Dreams The 'Uncanny' Civilisation and its Discontents' The clear presentation, with regular summaries of the ideas raised, encourages the reader to fully engage with the texts presented and gain a thorough understanding of each text in the context of its background and impact on the development of psychoanalysis. Drawing on his extensive experience as a clinician and a teacher of psychoanalysis, Jean-Michel Quinodoz has produced a uniquely comprehensive presentation of Freud's work which will be of great value to anyone studying Freud and Psychoanalysis.