A Clinical Introduction to Freud: Techniques for Everyday Practice
Freud’s central theories explained in the context of modern therapy.

Often overlooked because he is so easy to mock, ridicule, or just plain misunderstand, Freud introduced many techniques for clinical practice that are still widely employed today. Yet surprisingly, there has never been a clinical introduction to Freud's work that might be of use to students and professionals in their everyday lives and careers. Until now.

Bruce Fink, who is his generation's most respected translator of Lacan's work and a profound interpreter of Freud's, has written the definitive clinical introduction to Freud. This book presents Freud in an eminently usable way, providing readers with a plethora of examples from everyday life and clinical practice illustrating the insightfulness and continued applicability of Freud's ideas.

The overriding focus is on techniques Freud developed for going directly toward the unconscious, illustrating how we can employ them today and perhaps even improve on them. Fink also lays out many of Freud's fundamental concepts—such as repression, isolation, displacement, anxiety, affect, free association, repetition, obsession, and wish-fulfillment—and situates them in highly applicable clinical contexts.

The emphasis throughout is on the myriad techniques developed by Freud that clinicians of all backgrounds and orientations can draw upon to put in their therapy toolbox, whether or not they identify as "Freudians."

With references ranging from Star Trek and the Moody Blues to hard drives and unicorns, Bruce Fink's elegant writing brings Freud into sharp focus for clinicians of all backgrounds. To readers who ask with an open mind "Does this approach allow me to see anything that I had not seen before in my clinical work?" this book will offer many new insights.

1125502399
A Clinical Introduction to Freud: Techniques for Everyday Practice
Freud’s central theories explained in the context of modern therapy.

Often overlooked because he is so easy to mock, ridicule, or just plain misunderstand, Freud introduced many techniques for clinical practice that are still widely employed today. Yet surprisingly, there has never been a clinical introduction to Freud's work that might be of use to students and professionals in their everyday lives and careers. Until now.

Bruce Fink, who is his generation's most respected translator of Lacan's work and a profound interpreter of Freud's, has written the definitive clinical introduction to Freud. This book presents Freud in an eminently usable way, providing readers with a plethora of examples from everyday life and clinical practice illustrating the insightfulness and continued applicability of Freud's ideas.

The overriding focus is on techniques Freud developed for going directly toward the unconscious, illustrating how we can employ them today and perhaps even improve on them. Fink also lays out many of Freud's fundamental concepts—such as repression, isolation, displacement, anxiety, affect, free association, repetition, obsession, and wish-fulfillment—and situates them in highly applicable clinical contexts.

The emphasis throughout is on the myriad techniques developed by Freud that clinicians of all backgrounds and orientations can draw upon to put in their therapy toolbox, whether or not they identify as "Freudians."

With references ranging from Star Trek and the Moody Blues to hard drives and unicorns, Bruce Fink's elegant writing brings Freud into sharp focus for clinicians of all backgrounds. To readers who ask with an open mind "Does this approach allow me to see anything that I had not seen before in my clinical work?" this book will offer many new insights.

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A Clinical Introduction to Freud: Techniques for Everyday Practice

A Clinical Introduction to Freud: Techniques for Everyday Practice

by Bruce Fink
A Clinical Introduction to Freud: Techniques for Everyday Practice

A Clinical Introduction to Freud: Techniques for Everyday Practice

by Bruce Fink

Hardcover

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Overview

Freud’s central theories explained in the context of modern therapy.

Often overlooked because he is so easy to mock, ridicule, or just plain misunderstand, Freud introduced many techniques for clinical practice that are still widely employed today. Yet surprisingly, there has never been a clinical introduction to Freud's work that might be of use to students and professionals in their everyday lives and careers. Until now.

Bruce Fink, who is his generation's most respected translator of Lacan's work and a profound interpreter of Freud's, has written the definitive clinical introduction to Freud. This book presents Freud in an eminently usable way, providing readers with a plethora of examples from everyday life and clinical practice illustrating the insightfulness and continued applicability of Freud's ideas.

The overriding focus is on techniques Freud developed for going directly toward the unconscious, illustrating how we can employ them today and perhaps even improve on them. Fink also lays out many of Freud's fundamental concepts—such as repression, isolation, displacement, anxiety, affect, free association, repetition, obsession, and wish-fulfillment—and situates them in highly applicable clinical contexts.

The emphasis throughout is on the myriad techniques developed by Freud that clinicians of all backgrounds and orientations can draw upon to put in their therapy toolbox, whether or not they identify as "Freudians."

With references ranging from Star Trek and the Moody Blues to hard drives and unicorns, Bruce Fink's elegant writing brings Freud into sharp focus for clinicians of all backgrounds. To readers who ask with an open mind "Does this approach allow me to see anything that I had not seen before in my clinical work?" this book will offer many new insights.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780393711967
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date: 03/21/2017
Pages: 384
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Bruce Fink, PhD, is a practicing Lacanian psychoanalyst and analytic supervisor who trained in France with the psychoanalytic institute Jacques Lacan created shortly before his death, the Ecole de la Cause freudienne in Paris. He has translated several of Lacan's works into English—including Ecrits: The First Complete Edition in English, Seminar XX: Encore, and Seminar VIIITransference—and is the author of numerous books on Lacan, including The Lacanian Subject, A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Lacan to the Letter, Fundamentals of Psychoanalytic Technique, Against Understanding (2 volumes), and most recently Lacan on Love. A board member of the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center, he has also penned several mysteries involving a character loosely based on Jacques Lacan: The Psychoanalytic Adventures of Inspector Canal, Death by Analysis, Odor di Murderer/Scent of a Killer, and The Purloined Love.

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

Recommended Reading xxii

Chapter 1 Tracing a Symptom Back to Its Origin 1

The Ubiquity of Isolation Strategies 5

Being of Two Minds 6

The Radical Inaccessibility of Repressed Thoughts and Wishes 7

The Unconscious Is Not a Kind of "Latency" 10

Traceable Symptoms: Trying Too Hard, for Example 12

The Very First Case: Anna O 15

For the Love Of … 18

Precipitating Causes 22

The Unconscious Does Not a "Depth Psychology" Make 25

Forcing Yourself to Do What You Don't Want To 28

Altered States 30

Deferred Action 33

What Can Be Alleviated Today by Tracing Things Back 35

Chapter 2 The Unconscious Is the Exact Opposite of the Conscious: How the Unconscious Manifests Itself in Speech and Symptoms 41

Removing the "Not" from Negative Assertions 42

Disguising Unconscious Thoughts 45

Fishy Assertions 47

Every Fear (or Worry or Concern) Covers Over a Wish 49

Dissimulated Aggression 57

The Heuristic Value of Hypotheticals 52

Excursion on Technique 54

The Disconnection Between Thought and Affect 55

Affect May Drift but Is Not Repressed 62

Chapter 3 Dreams: The Royal Road to the Unconscious 65

What We Learn from Dreams: Almost Everything 66

Backdrop to Freud's Study of Dreams 67

What Is a Dream? 71

Dreams Are Microsymptoms 75

The Nature of the Latent Content 78

How to Approach a Dream 81

How to Get Someone to Associate to a Dream 88

Why Are the Wishes in Dreams So Often Counterintuitive? 91

An Unconscious Wish Is Formulated in a Complete Sentence (or, The Unconscious Is Structured Like a Language) 97

How Not to Approach a Dream 99

Overdetermination: A Simple Example 104

Tools for Interpretation 105

Does Absolutely Every Dream Fulfill a Wish? 110

Daydreams, Fantasies, Slips, and Bungled Actions (Parapraxes) 114

Dreams and Memories 118

Chapter 4 Obsession and the Case of the Rat Man (Ernst Langer) 123

The "Precipitating Cause" of His Illness as an Adult 125

The Paralyzing Effects of "Destiny" 128

What Was He Doing Instead of Working? 129

The Structure of Obsessive Symptoms 131

Jouissance in Obsession 135

The Rat Man's Childhood Neurosis 137

Transference and Transferences 139

Postmortem 141

Some Forms Taken by Obsession Today: Doing Nothing and "Nothing Doing!" 142

Going Through the Motions: Doing Something as if One Did Not Want To 146

Nothing Else Matters 148

Chapter 5 Hysteria and the Case of Dora (Ida Bauer) 151

Synopsis of Ida's Situation 155

Ida's "Entry" into Analysis 156

The Unfolding of Ida's Analysis 160

The Why and Wherefore of Ida's Accusation 164

Further Mysteries 167

Femininity 172

Transference Revisited and the Breaking Off of the Analysis 176

Freud's Definition of Transference 178

How Can Transference Be Dealt With? 179

What Might Have Happened? 182

Countertransference 187

Relevance and Conclusions 191

Chapter 6 Symptom Formation 197

The Structural Viewpoint 199

How Symptoms Form 201

The "Sense" of Symptoms 203

Symptoms Involve Wishes 205

Symptoms Involve Repetition, but with a Twist 206

A Symptom Is Not Equivalent to a Structure 208

Symptoms Bring Jouissance with Them 212

Symptoms Are Overdetermined 215

Symptoms Signal the Return of the Repressed 216

The Psychical Cause of Symptoms 218

On Other So-Called Neuroses 222

Chapter 7 Beyond Freud? 225

Psychiatry Prematurely Rings the Death Knell of Psychoanalysis 225

Psychoanalytic Schools: Beyond Freud? 227

Psychoanalytic Approaches to Working with Psychosis 232

Beyond Freud's Biases in the Realm of Sexuality 234

Beyond Understanding 235

"Self-Analysis" 235

The Analytic Couch 236

Scheduling and Cancellation Policies 238

Appendix I Addressing Some of Freud's Critics 243

Appendix II On Suggestion 259

Appendix III Toward an Elucidation of the Rat Man's Crisis 263

Appendix IV A Freudian Interpretation of Dora's Specific Symptoms 271

Appendix V Sample Correspondences Between Psychoanalytic and DSM-5 Diagnoses 277

Notes 279

References 331

Index 339

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