In Suffering and Sacrifice in the Clinical Encounter, the authors identify the ways in which some patients seek to create what Freud termed a "private religion" and unconsciously substitute sacrificial enactments of scapegoat surrogates to protect them against the pain of separation, mourning, and loss of primary figures of attachment. They investigate the function of sacrifice and its relationship to the breakdown of psychic structure and the development of manic defenses and pathological narcissism. Such treatments are complex, the "reversed roles" of victim and perpetrator central to the sacrificial process when enacted in therapy can trigger feelings of shame, guilt and inadequacy in the therapist. Perverse, vengeful, and sadistic transference distortions are explored to enable the therapist to appreciate the true nature of the patient's hidden traumatic experience, with the necessity for the working-through of genuine separation and grieving highlighted. Useful methods are detailed to counter the tendency to become overly active and inappropriately involved when working with patients who have deadened their desire to improve. This book is unique in utilising the dynamic concepts of the effects of trauma and sacrifice, the role of the scapegoat, and the distinctions between the experience of pain and the accomplishment of suffering in order to develop a foundational understanding of such patients. It is a must-read for all practising and trainee therapists.

Social isolation and loneliness are increasingly being recognised as a priority public health problem and policy issue worldwide, with the effect on mortality comparable to risk-factors such as smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity. From the Abyss of Loneliness to the Bliss of Solitude sheds much-needed light on a multifaceted global phenomenon of loneliness, and investigates it, together with its counterpart solitude, from an exciting breadth of perspectives: detailed studies of psychoanalytic approaches to loneliness, developmental psychology, philosophy, culture, arts, music, literature, and neuroscience. The subjects covered also range widely, including the history and origins of loneliness, its effects on children, the creative process, health, lone wolf terrorism, and shame. This is a timely and important contribution to a growing problem - greatly exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic - that has serious effects on both life quality and expectancy. The book features contributions from a diverse host of leading international experts: Dominic Angeloch, Patrizia Arfelli, Charles Ashbach, Manfred E. Beutel, Elmar Brahler, Jagna Brudzinska, Michael B. Buchholz, Lesley Caldwell, Karin Dannecker, Aleksandar Dimitrejevic, Mareike Ernst, Jay Frankel, Gail A. Hornstein, Colum Kenny, Eva M. Klein, Helga de la Motte-Haber, Gamze Ozcurumez Bilgili, Inge Seiffge-Krenke, and Peter Shabad. The contributors address the developmental and communicative causes of loneliness, its neurophysiological correlates and artistic representations, and how loneliness differs to solitude, which some consider necessary for creativity. They also provide insights into how we can help those suffering from loneliness, as classical psychoanalytic papers are revisited, contemporary therapeutic perspectives presented, and detailed case presentations offered. From the Abyss of Loneliness to the Bliss of Solitude is essential reading for mental health professionals and those searching for a better understanding of what it means to be lonely and how the lonely can better voice their loneliness and step out of it.

Sigmund Freud and Oskar Pfister on Religion examines the dialogue between psychoanalysis and religion through the encounters of two men: the "unfaithful Jew" who founded psychoanalysis, and a pastor of profound religious faith and proven psychoanalytic conviction. Carlos Domínguez-Morano analyses the original encounters between Freud and Pfister and their respective positions, noting the incidences, impasses and progress of their discussions. The complex interactions between psychoanalysis and religion over time are considered, and Domínguez-Morano assesses the fundamental parameters of each perspective, with reference to Catholicism. The book explores the relationship between psychoanalysis and religion as a rich, ongoing, and unending dialogue and sheds new light on the origins of psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud and Oskar Pfister on Religion will be of great interest to academics and scholars of psychoanalytic studies, religion, the history of psychology, and the history of ideas.

Following the critically acclaimed Couples on the Couch, this volume offers further compelling ideas about couple psychotherapy from a psychoanalytic perspective. The book well represents the foundational basis of the Tavistock model and draws deeply from the work of Freud, Klein, Bion, Meltzer and the contemporary Kleinians, while expanding the theoretical model by featuring ideas about couple relationships written from a variety of psychoanalytic frameworks. These additional frameworks include Winnicottian Theory, Fairbairn’s Object Relations Theory, Link Theory, Self Psychology, Attachment Theory, Mentalization Theory, and Contemporary Relational Theory. This rich array of theoretical models, presented with exemplifying clinical material, results in a diverse assembly of papers that offer the reader an in-depth and complex view of a psychoanalytic approach to understanding and working with the dynamics of couple relationships. With clear clinical guidance, this book will be invaluable for all psychoanalysts and psychotherapists working with couples.

In this volume, Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation, Daniel Shaw presents a way of understanding the traumatic impact of narcissism as it is engendered developmentally, and as it is enacted relationally. Focusing on the dynamics of narcissism in interpersonal relations, Shaw describes the relational system of what he terms the 'traumatizing narcissist' as a system of subjugation – the objectification of one person in a relationship as the means of enforcing the dominance of the subjectivity of the other. Daniel Shaw illustrates the workings of this relational system of subjugation in a variety of contexts: theorizing traumatic narcissism as an intergenerationally transmitted relational/developmental trauma; and exploring the clinician's experience working with the adult children of traumatizing narcissists. He explores the relationship of cult leaders and their followers, and examines how traumatic narcissism has lingered vestigially in some aspects of the psychoanalytic profession. Bringing together theories of trauma and attachment, intersubjectivity and complementarity, and the rich clinical sensibility of the Relational Psychoanalysis tradition, Shaw demonstrates how narcissism can best be understood not merely as character, but as the result of the specific trauma of subjugation, in which one person is required to become the object for a significant other who demands hegemonic subjectivity. Traumatic Narcissism presents therapeutic clinical opportunities not only for psychoanalysts of different schools, but for all mental health professionals working with a wide variety of modalities. Although primarily intended for the professional psychoanalyst and psychotherapist, this is also a book that therapy patients and lay readers will find highly readable and illuminating.

The problem of how to understand and to treat masochism has plagued the vast majority of clinicians. The Clinical Problem of Masochism, edited by Deanna Holtzman, PhD, and Nancy Kulish, PhD, focuses on the common and difficult clinical problems posed by masochistic patients who are spread throughout all diagnostic categories. Foremost psychoanalytic clinicians in the field from various theoretical backgrounds demonstrate their approaches to working clinically with these problems. Each expert provides detailed clinical examples, making their approaches and suggestions come alive. This volume, unique in its varied clinical and practical focus, offers therapists of all theoretical persuasions ideas on how to think about and help individuals suffering from masochistic difficulties.