Showcasing a diverse range of contributions from psychoanalysts of many different countries and theoretical orientations, Psychoanalysis and Covidian Life, a collective work edited by Howard B. Levine and Ana de Staal, offers readers the opportunity to explore and reflect upon the ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic has begun to influence analytical practice. From the changes imposed on the framework (online sessions) to the impact of the trauma of isolation and the disruption of our social anchoring (required by confinement and health protection gestures), to the challenge presented to the 'ordinary' denial of mortality, this book explores the lessons of what the pandemic can teach us about how to understand and treat collective distress individually and puts psychoanalytical tools to the test of the profound psychosocial upheavals that the twenty-first century may hold in store. This book will be of interest to practising and trainee clinicians and anyone with an interest in the all-consuming effects of a global pandemic. Contributions from Christopher Bollas, Patricia Cardoso de Mello, Bernard Chervet, Joshua Durban, Antonino Ferro, Serge Frisch, Steven Jaron, Daniel Kupermann, Howard Levine, Francois Levy, Riccardo Lombardi, Elias & Alberto Rocha Barros, Michael Rustin, Ana de Staal, and Jean-Jacques Tyszler.

Encompassing diverse perspectives on the psychoanalyst as individual, social being, and member of psychoanalytic institutions, this book provides practical and informed answers to the question of how psychoanalysts can take care of their psychoanalytic institutions. The book draws urgent attention to concerns about how the field of psychoanalysis can be sustained into the future, and sets out several studies in institutional dynamics as a form of provocation for psychoanalysts to reflect on their position as members of the institution and to act courageously in their collective efforts. Correlations between institutional dynamics and familial relationships are emphasized, alongside varied and detailed accounts of the styles of leadership required to facilitate improved cooperation in psychoanalytic institutions. The authors draw on their experiences as group participants, leaders and observers at both local and supranational levels, to investigate the historical context underpinning the disillusion among psychoanalysts, offering readers richly informed perspectives on how to nurture collegial ethics. With an emphasis on a shared ethics of responsibility, and the work involved in building secure professional relationships among psychoanalytic groups of all kinds, this book will prove essential to those engaged in understanding the work involved in psychoanalysis, whether in training or in practice.

This book is one of the first systematic examinations on the looming mental health crisis emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic from a psychoanalytic perspective. Bringing together practising therapists from Asia and Europe, this book: analyses themes like anxiety, depression, sexuality, loss and death through clinical vignettes highlights how children, adolescents and adults have been responding to the pandemic explores how personal and collective trauma are mourned, remembered, repeated and worked through studies deep-seated prejudices and fears focuses on how the pandemic has stimulated exceptional manifestations of human solidarity and creativity Comprehensive and practical, this book will be an essential guide for mental health professionals, counsellors, therapists and medical doctors treating psychological trauma.

This book applies psychoanalytic insight to work with children and adolescents in a changing, often traumatic, world. Each chapter considers how psychoanalysis can develop and be developed, assessing how in the modern world, psychological disturbance and psychological trauma is manifest in new, unfamiliar ways. From new and different social and technological realities, to the internet, and new sexual discourse, each chapter explores how the analyst can hold onto fundamental psychoanalytic understandings of mental functioning, address the young patient’s or family’s need for containment, while respecting the importance of drives, the varieties of psychosexuality, and the powerful impact of anxiety on psychological development. In relation to children, these authors disclose the potential destructiveness of impingements from adults on a precious, vulnerable development. This collection is essential reading for all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well as other health and educational professionals working with children and adolescents.

The Clinical Thinking of W. R. Bion in Brazil is comprised of thirteen transcriptions of supervisions Wilfred Bion conducted during his three teaching and speaking tours of Brazil. During these tours, Bion conducted over 130 public supervisions of analytic cases in English in which he explained his theories and illustrated their clinical application. Following on from the first volume, Bion in Brazil: Supervisions and Commentaries (2017), this book presents each supervision in full, with an accompanying commentary written by a senior Brazilian psychoanalyst and Bionian scholar. Arguably, no psychoanalyst has had as much impact on psychoanalytic development in Brazil than Bion, and this collection of his seminars, presented here for the first time, acts as a historical document and testament to his legacy in contemporary analysis. The Clinical Thinking of W. R. Bion in Brazil provides a unique opportunity for contemporary psychoanalysts, candidates, and students to hear the distinctive ‘voice’ of Bion, observe how he listens in conversation, and learn how he would intervene in and interpret a clinical situation.

Contributors include Anthony Berendt, Birgitte Bonnerup, Leslie B. Brissett, Halina Brunning, Tim Dartington, Winnie Fei, M. Gerard Fromm, Zhang Jian Li, Olya Khaleelee, Andrzej Leder, Richard Morgan-Jones, Claudia Nagel, Mario Perini, Rob Stuart, Simon Western, and Barbara-Anne Wren. The idea of The Covid Trail developed at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Using the language of psychoanalysis and system psychodynamic thinking, it seeks to find a way to think about and understand the post-pandemic world from an international perspective. Motivated by a desire to express what is hidden, dangerous, and difficult to express, this book takes us on a trail. It starts with disquiet, disorientation, and loss in Part I. Through attempts to make sense of it all, a clear, albeit meandering and dangerous, path to follow is created, which snakes throughout the book. Part II takes a closer look at despair and resilience and pairs them through balancing power with vulnerability. Part III delves into the realm of psychoanalysis, to seek solace, or at least a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of the pandemic, and examines how we have sown our own environmental destruction. The final part offers a glimpse into the post-Covidian world and the longer and deeper impact of Covid upon our bodies, relationships, constructs, and civilisation. The volume ends on a trail of each chapter's essence, taking the reader from shock, disorientation, and fear through mobilisation of resilience, a realisation of the enormity of the changes humanity faces, and an attempt to comprehend these processes as a guide to this permanent "new normal". All those with a desire to understand the way the world has changed will want to explore The Covid Trail.

The Bion Seminars at the A-Santamaria Association offers readers insightful analyses and commentaries on Bion’s key papers and books, as well as providing a unique set of discussions and explorations of many of Bion’s central concepts and foundational texts. This diverse collection of essays brings together contributions from internationally renowned Bionian scholars and analysts, including Annie Reiner, Nicola Abel-Hirsch, Antònia Grimalt, Avner Bergstein, Afsaneh Kiany Alisobhani, João Carlos Braga, Tom Helscher, Tim Smith and Peter Goldberg. Readers will encounter expansions and extensions of contemporary and timeless themes and discover the originality with which psychoanalysts from different geographical regions take ownership of the ideas discussed. Chapters cover the early and late work of Bion, spanning topics such as arrogance, the theory of thinking, memory and desire, and the clinical importance of frustration. The authors reveal to us the elements of continuity and discontinuity in Bion's work, sharing open conjectures to allow new developments to evolve. This volume is essential reading for practicing psychoanalysts, analysts-in-training, analytic psychotherapists, and anyone interested in exploring Bion's work.

This book provides a clear and accessible overview of the seminal clinical thinking of Christopher Bollas. Placing Bollas’s writings besides those of analysts including Milner, Bion, Winnicott, Lacan, and Green, Steven Jaron examines the central concept of the unthought known in terms of unconscious communication in the primary environment while occasioning a reworking of Oedipal configurations. Through vivid narratives of character analyzing a range of adult patients, at times requiring a rethinking of the conventional psychoanalytic frame, Jaron offers a fresh perspective on Bollas in arguing for the importance of considering not only the patient’s self experience but also the psychoanalyst's. This important study will be rewarding to beginning and seasoned analysts alike, offering suggestions for using Bollas’ work in the consulting room as well as when faced with the demands of civic life today.

'Living with the idea of bearing a death-force fundamentally directed at oneself is hardly easy to admit. It is less so in any case than the idea that we are all murderers, that we are ever ready to plead legitimate defence or the need to survive so as to strike out at another.' Andre Green, from the Foreword What drives men to kill and self-destruct? On the Death and Destruction Drives traces the introduction and development of the controversial concept of the "death drive", from the work of Freud (1920-1938) to the main contributions of classical and post-Freudian authors, including Ferenczi, Klein, Bion, Winnicott, and Lacan. Shedding light on non-neurotic phenomena and structures, such as anorexia, bulimia, depression, suicide, criminal behaviour, Andre Green offers a new perspective on the relationship between the life drive (Eros) and the death drive (Thanatos). Andre Green was a key figure in contemporary psychoanalysis, who embraced philosophy and an international outlook to enhance psychoanalytic theory. This book was one of his last works, originally published in French as Pourquoi les pulsions de destruction ou de mort? in 2012. Green's defence of one of Freud's most daring revisions of his drive theory remains relevant to psychoanalytic work today, and it is an honour to bring this excellent translation to the English-speaking world. To enhance its worth, the book includes an introduction from translator Steven Jaron to clarify certain technical terms and situate the book within Green's oeuvre. This book is an important contribution to the development of psychoanalytic theory and essential reading for all trainee and practising psychoanalysts.

Contemporary Practice in Studio Art Therapy discovers where studio practice stands in the profession today and reflects on how changing social, political, and economic contexts have influenced its ethos and development. This is the first UK volume devoted to studio art therapy, and the writers explore what is meant by a studio approach and how they are adapting art-based practices in radical new ways and settings. It comprises three parts – Part I: Frames of reference explores how particular social, cultural, and political contexts have led to the discourses within practice; Part II: Models of practice gives accounts of current studio art therapy practice, describing rationale for working methods and providing a resource for practitioners; Part III: Curating, exhibiting and archiving considers how the display and disposal of artworks, particularly relevant to studio approaches, may be thought about and implemented. The book includes chapters from North American authors who illustrate a trajectory of practice that has the potential to point to future developments. The book will be essential reading for practitioners and students who are interested in taking a fresh perspective on art therapy and will be encouraged by new ways of thinking about the studio approach in today’s changing world.