Desire, Pain and Thought presents a new perspective on primal erotogenic masochism, which Marilia Aisenstein regards as the core of psychoanalytic theory. Aisenstein distinguishes between pathological masochism – the active search for pain – and primal erotogenic masochism, which she believes develops in early childhood. Desire, Pain and Thought explains that the formation of this response in a child is essential to the survival of the individual and the development of resilience. Aisenstein skilfully and convincingly uses her deep understanding of metapsychology and her mastery of Freud’s seminal papers to demonstrate that thought is one of the manifestations of desire which implies a painful renunciation of the object of desire. By moving away from its pathological, negative connotation to a more positive one, the book presents an understanding of masochism as “the guardian of life”. Desire, Pain and Thought will be essential reading for psychoanalysts in practice and in training.

The Freudian Matrix of Andre Green presents seven papers, never previously published in English, that will allow readers to more closely follow and more fully understand the development of Green's unique psychoanalytic thinking. The chapters in this book provide valuable insight into Green's response to a perceived crisis in psychoanalysis. His thinking synthesizes the work of Lacan, Winnicott, Bion and other post-Freudian authors with his own extensive clinical experience, and results in a much needed extension of psychoanalytic theory and practice to non-neurotic patients. Green's focus on drives, affect and the work of the negative and his introduction and exploration of the Dead Mother complex, narcissism, negative hallucination and the Death Instinct constitute a vital expansion of Freudian metapsychology and its application to the clinical setting. The Freudian Matrix of Andre Green will be essential reading for psychoanalysts in practice and in training, and for any reader looking to understand more about the enormity of his contribution.

Desire, Pain and Thought presents a new perspective on primal erotogenic masochism, which Marilia Aisenstein regards as the core of psychoanalytic theory. Aisenstein distinguishes between pathological masochism – the active search for pain – and primal erotogenic masochism, which she believes develops in early childhood. Desire, Pain and Thought explains that the formation of this response in a child is essential to the survival of the individual and the development of resilience. Aisenstein skilfully and convincingly uses her deep understanding of metapsychology and her mastery of Freud’s seminal papers to demonstrate that thought is one of the manifestations of desire which implies a painful renunciation of the object of desire. By moving away from its pathological, negative connotation to a more positive one, the book presents an understanding of masochism as “the guardian of life”. Desire, Pain and Thought will be essential reading for psychoanalysts in practice and in training.

The Freudian Matrix of Andre Green presents seven papers, never previously published in English, that will allow readers to more closely follow and more fully understand the development of Green's unique psychoanalytic thinking. The chapters in this book provide valuable insight into Green's response to a perceived crisis in psychoanalysis. His thinking synthesizes the work of Lacan, Winnicott, Bion and other post-Freudian authors with his own extensive clinical experience, and results in a much needed extension of psychoanalytic theory and practice to non-neurotic patients. Green's focus on drives, affect and the work of the negative and his introduction and exploration of the Dead Mother complex, narcissism, negative hallucination and the Death Instinct constitute a vital expansion of Freudian metapsychology and its application to the clinical setting. The Freudian Matrix of Andre Green will be essential reading for psychoanalysts in practice and in training, and for any reader looking to understand more about the enormity of his contribution.

This important book argues that apres-coup, a concept that has blossomed in French psychoanalytic discourse, not only allows an understanding of how repressed early memories determine adult life, and how human sexuality develops, but also allows for a richer and wider explanation of our mental structures and thinking. The book outlines how apres-coup has been understood and defined by Freud, Lacan and other authors, considers it in diverse psychoanalytic cultures and explores its resonance in dream-work, sexual drives, thought, and the experience of trauma. Bernard Chervet considers that the totality of human thought can be approached according to the theory of apres-coup. It offers a metapsychological approach to the operation of apres-coup, bodily erogeneity and the regeneration of libido. Chervet's compelling work argues that the phenomenon of apres-coup allowed for the development of the psychoanalytic theories of causality, sexuality, temporality, memory and trauma. Illustrated by clinical vignettes and written by one of the leading theorists on the topic, Apres-coup in Psychoanalysis will be an invaluable resource for psychoanalysts in training and in practice.

This book is a journey through almost forty years of practice. Each chapter is independent of the others and develops around a specific theme: psychoanalysis in France, the transference, fathers today, psychic bisexuality, the sick body, human destructivity, and so on. The underlying thread is none the less the question of knowing how the drive operates between the biological body and mental functioning consisting of representations and affects, and, especially, how it gives rise to thinking.If thinking is an "act of the flesh", as the author asserts, how can we refine our understanding of the vicissitudes of the "mysterious leap from the mind to the body"? Furthermore, how does Freudian metapsychology still help us today in our encounters with patients? Contemporary clinical practice is sometimes bewildering: acts, violence, pain, and somatization often replace neurotic conflicts and speech. The clinical stories related here have the aim of showing that a psychoanalysis rooted in the Freudian corpus is still alive and can continue to offer creative responses today.

Andre Green attempts the complex task of identifying and examining the key ideas for a contemporary psychoanalytic practice. This undertaking is motivated both by the need for an outline of the evolution of psychoanalysis since Freud's death, and by the hope of tackling the fragmentation which has led to the current 'crisis of psychoanalysis'. In three sections covering the theoretical and practical aspects of psychoanalysis, and analysing the current state of the field, Andre Green provides a stimulating overview of the principal concepts that have guided his work. Subjects covered include: Transference and countertransference Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy: modalities and results Language-speech-discourse in psychoanalysis Recognition of the unconscious This unique contemporary perspective on the psychoanalytic enterprise will fascinate all those with an interest in the problems that face the field and the opportunities for its future development.

This important book argues that apres-coup, a concept that has blossomed in French psychoanalytic discourse, not only allows an understanding of how repressed early memories determine adult life, and how human sexuality develops, but also allows for a richer and wider explanation of our mental structures and thinking. The book outlines how apres-coup has been understood and defined by Freud, Lacan and other authors, considers it in diverse psychoanalytic cultures and explores its resonance in dream-work, sexual drives, thought, and the experience of trauma. Bernard Chervet considers that the totality of human thought can be approached according to the theory of apres-coup. It offers a metapsychological approach to the operation of apres-coup, bodily erogeneity and the regeneration of libido. Chervet's compelling work argues that the phenomenon of apres-coup allowed for the development of the psychoanalytic theories of causality, sexuality, temporality, memory and trauma. Illustrated by clinical vignettes and written by one of the leading theorists on the topic, Apres-coup in Psychoanalysis will be an invaluable resource for psychoanalysts in training and in practice.

"Illusions and Disillusions of Psychoanalytic Work" is the title the author has opted for rather than that of failure, a term that does not seem suitable to him, in the specific field of psychoanalysis, for recounting and exploring the disappointing and sometimes tragic evolutions of the treatments of certain patients who are resistant to the effects of analytic work. In this book he reports cases taken from his own experience and that of his collaborators. He points out, moreover, that such cases have never been absent from the series of analysands that he has treated, from the early days of his practice up until today, without minimizing his counter-transference reactions or their possible impact on these disappointing evolutions.

In this book Jean-Luc Donnet explores the particularities of the status of the method in psychoanalysis, linked to the specificity of unconscious psychic processes. If the method aims at ensuring a level of technical mastery, it must also make sure that analytic treatment does not become an application of knowledge. A modern conception of the analytic situation implies going beyond the classical pair of setting-interpretation . Starting out from the postulate of a transferential dynamic of the encounter, the author brings into play the pair analyzing site-situation . The analyzing situation emerges from the utilization, in a found-created mode (Winnicott), of an initial site constituted by a set of means put at the patient s disposal. The analyzing situation includes patient and analyst in a self-organizing structure. The notion of a site makes it possible to approach the difference between psychoanalysis and analytic psychotherapy differently: each site has a logic, an intrinsic functional coherence, which have their own incidence on the therapeutic process. In the second part of the book, which ends with analysis of an essential screen-memory A Child Is Being Talked About, the author also presents four other texts: a vertiginous study of Conrad s novel, "Lord Jim"; a new exploration of tender humour; a moving reading of Freud s "A Disturbance on the Acropolis," and a radical approach to "Civilization and its Discontents" which reflect the central place he gives to the agency of the superego as a keystone of Freudian thought."

In this book the author explores the particularities of the status of the method in psychoanalysis, linked to the specificity of unconscious psychic processes. If the method aims at ensuring a level of technical mastery, it must also make sure that analytic treatment does not become an 'application' of knowledge. A modern conception of the analy

Illusions and Disillusions of Psychoanalytic Work recounts and explores the disappointing and sometimes tragic evolutions of the treatments of certain patients who are resistant to the effects of analytic work. In this book the author reports cases taken from his own experience and that of his collaborators. The author points out moreover, that such cases have never been absent from the series of analysands that he has treated, from the early days of his practice up until today, without minimizing his counter-transference reactions or their possible impact on these disappointing evolutions.

Andre Green attempts the complex task of identifying and examining the key ideas for a contemporary psychoanalytic practice. This undertaking is motivated both by the need for an outline of the evolution of psychoanalysis since Freud's death, and by the hope of tackling the fragmentation which has led to the current 'crisis of psychoanalysis'. In three sections covering the theoretical and practical aspects of psychoanalysis, and analyzing the current state of the field, Andre Green provides a stimulating overview of the principal concepts that have guided his work. Subjects covered include:
* Transference and countertransference
* Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy: modalities and results
* Language-speech-discourse in psychoanalysis
* Recognition of the unconscious
This unique contemporary perspective on the psychoanalytic enterprise will fascinate all those with an interest in the problems that face the field and the opportunities for its future development.