Living Psychoanalysis

Living Psychoanalysis: From Theory to Experience represents a decade of work from one of today's leading psychoanalysts. Michael Parsons brings to life clinical psychoanalysis and its theoretical foundations, offering new developments in analytic theory and vivid examples of work in the consulting room. The book also explores connections between psychoanalysis, art and literature, showing how psychoanalytic insights can enrich our lives far beyond the clinical situation.


Living Psychoanalysis comprises four main sections:


Life and Death - asks what it means to be fully and creatively alive, and introduces the concept of avant-coup


Sexuality, Narcissism and the Oedipus complex - develops fresh ways of understanding these key concepts


How analysts listen - explores links between psychoanalytic listening and the way artists look at the world, and introduces the concept of the internal analytic setting


The Independent tradition in British psychoanalysis - considers the theoretical foundations of Independent clinical technique, and discusses from various perspectives the role of training in developing the identity of analysts and analytic therapists


With fresh theoretical concepts and a focus on specific aspects of clinical practice, Living Psychoanalysis: From Theory to Experience will be a valuable resource for analysts, therapists and professionals who wish to extend their vision of psychoanalysis. It will also be of great interest to general readers concerned to deepen their understanding of the links between culture and the mind.

Introduction. Part 1: Between Death and the Primal Scene.Keeping Death Alive. Why Did Orpheus Look Back? Après-Coup, Avant-Coup. Appendix: More About Memory. In Defence of the Uncanny. Part 2: Concepts on the Move. Sexuality and Perversion: Discovering What Freud Discovered. Oedipal Disidentification: Au Nom Du Fils, Au Nom De La Fille.Narcissism as Prison, Narcissism as Springboard: A Reading of Sophocles' Ajax. Part 3: The Activity of Listening. Listening Out, Listening In, Looking Out, Looking In. The Analyst's Countertransference to the Psychoanalytic Process .Raiding the Inarticulate: Internal Setting, Beyond Countertransference. Part 4: Clinical Practice Taking Shape. What Does Interpretation Put Into Words? An Independent Theory of Clinical Technique. Forming an Identity: Reflections on Psychoanalytic Training.