Hope And Dread In Pychoanalysis

by Stephen A. Mitchell

Overview

The love affair that psychoanalysis has had with its own founder has obscured just how different the field is today from what it was a century ago, when Freud was writing. Now Stephen A. Mitchell, a central figure in the modernization of psychoanlalysis, shows how the field is moving beyond the confines of Freudian drive theory to encompass the concerns of contemporary life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465030620
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	05/06/1995
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1390L (what's this?)

Editorial Reviews

Examining contemporary psychoanalysis as it is experienced by both analysts and their patients, Mitchell, a training analyst at Manhattan's William Alanson White Institute, cogently delineates the ways contemporary analysis has moved away from Freud's original vision, particularly in regard to drive theory. Mitchell views psychoanalysis as a fluid process in which the developing relationship between analyst and analysand--specifically in the gradual expression and shaping of their own desires and fears--becomes the field on which deep change is facilitated. Setting his observations in a theoretical context, he cites the work of such modern psychoanalytic thinkers as David Winnicut, Heinz Kohut, Melanie Klein and Daniel Stern, among others. He argues that ``analytic method is not archaeological and reconstructive; it does not simply expose what is there. Rather it is constructive and synthetic; it organizes whatever is there into patterns it itself supplies.'' Exploring current theories of self along with such clinical issues as the beginnings and endings of analytic treatment, Mitchell writes with clarity and passion. Psychotherapy Book Club and Behavioural Science Book Service alternates. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Mitchell, a central figure in the modernization of psychoanalysis, shows how the field is moving beyond the confines of Freudian drive theory to encompass the concerns of contemporary life, emphasizing how the tensions and reconciliations between the wishes and needs of both analyst and analysand--their "hopes and dreads"--become the medium of change. Sophisticated but generally jargon-free and accessible to general readers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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