A bold look at the body as a source of contention for those who suffer from personality disorders. This work connects interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory, and psychoanalytic theory with cognitive and neuroscientific work on implicit memory, trauma theory, and dissociation to propose an integrated method for treating severe borderline and narcissistic disorders, with the prime aim of resolving the affect dysregulation that affects the various realms of bodily discomfort and existential pain. Each chapter presents a particular case and illustrates the methods for working with the specific problems that arise: from bulimia to self-cutting to sexual identity diffusion to suicidality. Treatment is illustrated from the initial level of careful diagnosis to the first stages of the interaction to the further steps and development of the interpersonal work of the dyad patient-therapist, including powerful enactments. In accessible language that references psychodynamic and relational psychoanalytic theory, the book proposes a revision of the etiopathogenesis of personality disorders, starting from the traumatic interpersonal exchanges (early relational trauma, maltreatment, deprivation, and abuse). The book breaks new ground on several levels. For the first time the body is accorded full attention in the treatment: developmentally and epigenetically situation as it is "in-between" the self and the other (at first, the caregiver, then in other circumstances of upbringing and traumatic personal relationships). The body is viewed as the main vehicle of this dysfunctional development, so that both the body and the subject are at once the "victim"—the recipient of the dysregulation resulting in impulsivity, destructiveness, self-harm, or eating disorders—and the internalized persecutor, i.e. the abuser of one's own body that sometimes also becomes the aggressor of others. Profoundly humane and scientifically sound, this book is a must-read for professionals, clients, and families involved in the difficult task of relieving the symptoms and reorganizing the personalities of subjects living in "borderline bodies."

The latest groundbreaking, interdisciplinary work from one of our most eloquent and significant writers about emotion and the brain. An exploration into the adaptive functions of the emotional right brain, which describes not only affect and affect regulation within minds and brains, but also the communication and interactive regulation of affects between minds and brains. This book offers evidence that emotional interactions reflect right-brain-to-right-brain affective communication. Essential reading for those trying to understand one-person psychology as well as two-person psychology relationships, whether clinical or otherwise.

An exploration of how the unconscious is formed and functions by one of our most renowned experts on emotion and the brain. This book traces the evolution of the concept of the unconscious from an intangible, metapsychological abstraction to a psychoneurobiological function of a tangible brain. An integration of current findings in the neurobiological and developmental sciences offers a deeper understanding of the dynamic mechanisms of the unconscious. The relevance of this reformulation to clinical work is a central theme of Schore's other new book, Right Brain Psychotherapy.

2020 Award Winner for the Independent Press Award in the category of Addiction & Recovery. A new model of addiction that incorporates neurobiology, social relationships, and ecological systems. Understanding addiction is no longer just about understanding neurons or genes, broken brain functioning, learning, or faulty choices. Oliver J. Morgan provides a fresh take on addiction and recovery by presenting a more inclusive framework than traditional understanding. Cutting- edge work in attachment, interpersonal neurobiology, and trauma is integrated with ecological- systems thinking to provide a consilient and comprehensive picture of addiction. Humans are born into connection and require nourishing relationships for healthy living. Adversities, however, bring fragmentation and create the conditions for ill health. They create vulnerabilities. In order to cope, individuals can turn to alternatives, “substitute relationships” that ease the pain of disconnection. These can become addictions. Addiction, Attachment, Trauma, and Recovery presents a model, a method, and a mandate. This new focus calls for change in the established ways we think and behave about addiction and recovery. It reorients understanding and clinical practice for mental health and addiction counselors, psychologists, and social workers, as well as for addicts and those who love them.

Georg Northoff presents the first introduction to neuropsychoanalysis and the search for a brain-based understanding and explanation of our psyche and its psychodynamic features. This book covers the key features of psychodynamics, including the concepts of self, narcissism, defence mechanisms, unconsciousness/consciousness, attachment and trauma, energy/cathexis, and depression/schizophrenia. After reviewing past and current state-of-the-art models and their limitations, Northoff uniquely links these psychodynamic features to temporal and spatial features in the brain (and body). The key element in connecting brain and mind is dynamic, the pattern of change over time: from brain dynamic to psychodynamic - dynamic is thus shared by brain and psyche as their "common currency". This spatiotemporal approach offers novel and sometimes surprising insights into the elusive connection of brain and mind. Ultimately, this carries important clinico-therapeutic implications for psychodynamic psychotherapy in a spatiotemporal sense, such as through spatiotemporal psychotherapy. This accessible volume will be of great interest to neuroscientists, neuropsychoanalysts, psychologists, psychoanalysts, and anyone interested in the brain-mind connection. Additional material for the present book including figures and tables as well as short talks about each chapter can be found on this website (www.georgnorthoff.com) including the author’s YouTube channel.

The Dynamic Self in Psychoanalysis builds a bridge between two different but intertwined disciplines—psychoanalysis and neuroscience—by examining the Self and its dynamics at the psychological and neuronal level. Rosa Spagnolo and Georg Northoff seek continuity in the relationship between psychoanalysis and neuroscience, emphasizing how both inform psychotherapy and psychoanalytic treatment and exploring the transformations of the Self that occur during this work. Each chapter presents clinical examples which demonstrate the evolution of the spatiotemporal and affective dimensions of the Self in a variety of psychopathologies. Spagnolo and Northoff analyze the possible use of new neuroscientific findings to improve clinical treatment in psychodynamic therapy and present a spatio-temporal approach that has significant implications for the practice of psychotherapy and for future research. The Dynamic Self in Psychoanalysis will be of great interest to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, neuroscientists and neuropsychiatrists.

Arnold Wm. Rachman and Clara Mucci provide a detailed examination of the significance of Sándor Ferenczi’s paradigm shifting theory of trauma, the Confusion of Tongues, and confirm its relevance for the psychoanalytic theory and analysis of trauma today. As the first alternative to Freud’s theory of the Oedipal complex, Ferenczi’s Confusion of Tongues theory expanded the theoretical and clinical boundaries of psychoanalysis to establish that psychological trauma as a result of childhood sexual abuse and trauma experiences are a significant contributing factor to the development of psychological disorders. The authors address the lack of attention paid to the significance of sexual abuse trauma to understanding psychological ill health in psychoanalysis, and integrate the latest research on neurobiology to demonstrate how Ferenczi’s theory is meaningful to understanding many aspects of human behavior today. This work will be formative to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists both in training and in practice and provide renewed insight into the treatment of childhood sexual abuse and psychological trauma.

Demonstrating a relational, dialogic way of thinking and writing, this book offers an innovative perspective on the human potential for intersubjective engagement and on the nature of true encounter. The authors engage in creative, associative dialogues and trialogues inspired by psychoanalysis and Buddhism, poetry and religion, theory and case studies, academic and free styles of writing – each enriching the other. Reflecting on the essence of relating, they convey a flow between inner, private reveries and shared ones, and between individual expressions of thought and evolvements of newly born thirds. Through this interdisciplinary, experimental setting, the authors explore the possibility to reach truths and meanings that each individual would not have achieved on their own. Offering new concepts and formulations that may nourish psychotherapists’ thought and be usefully implemented in their practice, this book presents a pressingly unique and essential viewpoint for psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists in training and in practice.