Books

Psychosomatics have classically been of peripheral importance within our wellknown theoretical models, despite the fact that they do have a history in the field of psychoanalysis. This might be owing to the fact that Freud did not explicitly approach psychosomatics and, in consequence, did not put forward any hypotheses within his theoretical body. However, the Freudian concepts of actual neuroses and mixed neuroses are a basis in order to understand psychosomatic phenomena. The same could be said about the connections established with subsequent Freudian theoretical models, such as: the introduction of narcissism, unresolved mourning processes, early trauma and the action of Thanatos.

In this book a group of contemporary psychoanalytic authors dedicated to studies on women and the feminine have been assembled with the objective of displaying points of concordance and discordance in relation to Freudian proposals.

Discourse on women has changed greatly since Freud's time. It coincides with deep changes experienced by women and the feminine position, at least in most of the Western world. It is common knowledge that contraceptives, assisted fertilization, advances in women's rights, growingly evident sublimational capacities and demonstrations of professional success have definitely changed ideas regarding an eternal and immutable feminine nature. The authors are interested in illuminating ways in which these changes have or have not influenced psychoanalytic debate in relation to the feminine. This implies renewing the question of what is authentically feminine and whether there is any essential truth concerning the feminine.

They select as a starting point: "Femininity", the thirty-third lecture of the New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1933 [1932]), a paper in which Freud reflects, and at the same time expands, ideas developed in previous texts which state his concepts on femininity.

This tightly edited volume opens a new vista in psychoanalysis by focusing upon positive and life-enhancing emotions and attitudes. The realms it covers include love, friendship, enthusiasm, courage, tact, resilience, and forgiveness, among others....

In this book Jean-Luc Donnet explores the particularities of the status of the method in psychoanalysis, linked to the specificity of unconscious psychic processes. If the method aims at ensuring a level of technical mastery, it must also make sure that analytic treatment does not become an 'application' of knowledge. A modern conception of the analytic situation implies going beyond the classical pair of 'setting-interpretation'.....

This book's hypothesis is that psychoanalysis revolutionizes the common conception of time, similar to the revolution in physics. While it does not ignore the 'psychological time arrow' no doubt distinguishing past, present and future, psychoanalysis reveals that in analytic experience, time acquires diverse formations in which these distinctions become more complex and fade until they take the shape of what Andre Green, in a felicitous expression, calls 'le temps ‚clat‚' ['exploded time'].....