In Sigmund Freud’s 1915 paper, ‘Mourning and Melancholia’, he makes a comparison that is fundamental to the argument that follows. He begins the paper stating that he intends to ‘throw some light on the nature of melancholia by comparing it with the normal affect of mourning’. (251) ‘Mourning,’ he continues, ‘is regularly the reaction to the loss of a loved person.’ He adds an interesting addendum here to which we will have cause to return. It is not only the reaction to the

I thought it would be useful to think about the role of the person in therapy and the therapist in long-term psychoanalytic work. The Role of the Person in Therapy If the person in therapy is to get the most from the experience, there needs to be a recognition that a proportion of the problems to be explored lie within the person. Together with this, there also should be the conviction that a deeper understanding of the self, and the way relationships are built, will enable s

I was struck by the following passage from Michael Parsons's essay, The Analyst's Countertransference to the Psychoanalytic Process: The start of a new analysis brings a sense, for analyst as well as patient, of embarking on something. Imagine setting out to sail the Atlantic, or dedicating oneself to the study of a language and its culture. One is not just beginning to do something, but engaging with something that extends far beyond oneself. We bring with us what knowledge

Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature showcases three series of prints by the Portuguese-English artist: Nursery Rhymes, Peter Pan and Jane Eyre. My understanding of visual art is fairly rudimentary . However, I feel justified in venturing into the territory in this case as the subject matter is explicitly literary (my home turf) and obviously of interest to psychoanalysis. In The Uses of Enchantment , Bruno Bettelheim offers a Freudian reading of fairytales – this is w

‘Attention,’ writes Simone Weil, ‘consists of suspending our thought, leaving it detached, empty, and ready to be penetrated by the...

It is surprising that there has not been more fanfare around the publication of the Revised Standard Edition of the Complete...

I have been doing some writing, part of a project I call 'Unself-Help'. This is the start: Self-help and psychoanalysis are incompatible....

Before I started my training, I read Stephen Frosh's A Brief Introduction to Psychoanalytic Theory. I picked it up a few days ago and...

Mettle In the film Network the character played by Ned Beatty, a truly terrifying capitalist superman called Arthur Jensen, delivers a...

East Anglian Psychotherapy Network's conference: Understanding and Treating Trauma – Current Psychotherapeutic Approaches was a...

This will be a place where I add interesting links and comment on matters pertaining to psychotherapy. This is a key essay by Mark Solms...