A Psychotherapy for the People: Toward a Progressive Psychoanalysis
464A Psychotherapy for the People: Toward a Progressive Psychoanalysis
464Paperback
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Overview
Inspired by the progressive and humanistic origins of psychoanalysis, Lewis Aron and Karen Starr pursue Freud's call for psychoanalysis to be a "psychotherapy for the people." They present a cultural history focusing on how psychoanalysis has always defined itself in relation to an "other." At first, that other was hypnosis and suggestion; later it was psychotherapy. The authors trace a series of binary oppositions, each defined hierarchically, which have plagued the history of psychoanalysis. Tracing reverberations of racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and homophobia, they show that psychoanalysis, associated with phallic masculinity, penetration, heterosexuality, autonomy, and culture, was defined in opposition to suggestion and psychotherapy, which were seen as promoting dependence, feminine passivity, and relationality. Aron and Starr deconstruct these dichotomies, leading the way for a return to Freud's progressive vision, in which psychoanalysis, defined broadly and flexibly, is revitalized for a new era.
A Psychotherapy for the People will be of interest to psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, clinical psychologists, psychiatristsand their patientsand to those studying feminism, cultural studies and Judaism.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780415529990 |
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Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Publication date: | 12/03/2012 |
Series: | Relational Perspectives Book Series |
Pages: | 464 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d) |
About the Author
Karen Starr is the author of Repair of the Soul: Metaphors of Transformation in Judaism and Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2008). She is a candidate at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, and a recipient of the Ruth Stein Prize. She is in private practice in New York City.
Table of Contents
Dedication. Acknowledgments. Preface. Introduction: A Psychotherapy for the People. Binaries, Polarities, and Thirds. Guilt and Shame. Treatment and Care. Psychoanalysis in Uniform. Psychoanalysis as War Hero. Psychoanalysis as Holocaust Survivor. Psychoanalysis versus Psychotherapy: Definition via Binary Opposition. Comic Book Crusaders: Psychoanalysis as Superhero. Charcot and Bernheim: Origins of Intrapsychic and Relational Models of Mind. Women on the Couch: Genital Stimulation and the Birth of Psychoanalysis. Freud's Anti-Semitic Surround. The Right to Pass: Psychoanalysis' Jewish Identity. Universalizing the Jewish Problem. Freud, Ferenczi, and Schreber: Wandering Jews. Ethics, Universalism, and the Jewish Science. What is Psychoanalysis? Can You Say Shibboleth? Monsters, Ghosts, and Undecidables. References.What People are Saying About This
"Can psychoanalysis achieve the universality to which it lays claim? Only by giving it up, goes the dialectical argument of A Psychotherapy for the People: Toward a Progressive Psychoanalysis. Aron and Starr return psychoanalysis to its proper place on the cultural edge. They unveil the binaries – and behind them the hierarchies - that both power and weaken psychoanalysis. This anti-authoritarian book gives us good reason to hope that, by embracing its native complexity, psychoanalysis can realize its capacity to help, illuminate, and heal. Toward a heterodox psychoanalysis!" - Muriel Dimen PhD, Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, New York University
"When a book combines a profound understanding of psychoanalysis with a profound understanding of its historical and social context, that is a rare event indeed. When, in addition, it illuminates the still unrealized potentials of psychoanalysis to contribute to social progress, we have a truly landmark contribution. A Psychotherapy for the People should be required reading for anyone interested in psychoanalysis – or, for that matter, the human condition." - Paul L. Wachtel, CUNY Distinguished Professor, Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center
"A Psychotherapy for the People is unique, unusually daring, intellectually adventurous and highly illuminating. Aron and Starr are guided by a humane and complex vision that encompasses the vulnerability and social trauma, the human failings and strengths that underlay a great intellectual achievement. They offer a sorely needed perspective on the binary oppositions and patriarchal biases that snagged so many psychoanalytic thinkers. This is a book that could well frame the central issues for everyone who hopes to preserve the talking cure, the dynamic therapy that can serve us all." - Jessica Benjamin, Clinical Professor, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis