In Sex, Drugs, and Creativity: The Search for Magic in a Disenchanted World, Kahoud and Knafo take a close look at omnipotent fantasies in three domains: sex, drugs, and creativity. They demonstrate how these fantasies emerge and how artists draw on them both to create and destroy-sometimes simultaneously - and how understanding this can help psychoanalysts work more effectively with these individuals. Using the personal statements of influential artists and entertainers, in addition to clinical material, the authors examine the omnipotence of self-destruction as it contends with that of creative artists. The authors argue that creative artists use omnipotent fantasies to imagine the world differently - this enables them to produce their art, but also leaves these artists vulnerable to addiction. Chapters devoted to Stephen King and Anne Sexton demonstrate the ways these authors used drugs and alcohol to fuel imagination and inspire creative output while simultaneously doing harm to themselves. A detailed case study also demonstrates successful clinical work with a creative substance user. Sex, Drugs, and Creativity will appeal to anyone interested in the links between creativity and substance use, and will be of great use to psychoanalysts and mental health practitioners working with these challenging clients.

Whether you are thinking about starting therapy, going to graduate school, or are yourself a practicing healer of hearts and minds, Becoming a Clinical Psychologist: Personal Stories of Doctoral Training offers a wealth of useful information about today's training and trainees.. This book is a collection of accounts written by a diverse group of early-career psychologists and doctoral students in their final stages of training. Each of the twelve authors provides a deeply personal, inside perspective on becoming a therapist. Some of the chapters combine qualitative research with the author's particular experience, while others emphasize the author's personal journey as s/he moves from novice to clinician. Some of the issues that are covered include the ways in which training affects personal and professional relationships with spouses, friends, peers, faculty and supervisors, and clients; how budding clinicians deal with their own issues and feelings of inadequacy; and how trainees learn to develop the right balance of empathy and detachment in working with clients. Also unique to this collection is the diversity reflected in the contributors, which include an Orthodox Jewish gay man who "came out" during training; a Black woman of African descent who found a home in the psychoanalytic approach; a White man who experienced minority status in his mostly female doctoral program; a bisexual, White woman who had to negotiate misperceptions and judgments as she moved through her clinical training; and a dissident student who came from another profession and found herself at odds with most of her professors and supervisors about the role of trauma in the etiology of mental illness. Becoming a Clinical Psychologist is a compelling read for those both inside and outside the field of psychology.

In Sex, Drugs, and Creativity: The Search for Magic in a Disenchanted World, Kahoud and Knafo take a close look at omnipotent fantasies in three domains: sex, drugs, and creativity. They demonstrate how these fantasies emerge and how artists draw on them both to create and destroy-sometimes simultaneously - and how understanding this can help psychoanalysts work more effectively with these individuals. Using the personal statements of influential artists and entertainers, in addition to clinical material, the authors examine the omnipotence of self-destruction as it contends with that of creative artists. The authors argue that creative artists use omnipotent fantasies to imagine the world differently - this enables them to produce their art, but also leaves these artists vulnerable to addiction. Chapters devoted to Stephen King and Anne Sexton demonstrate the ways these authors used drugs and alcohol to fuel imagination and inspire creative output while simultaneously doing harm to themselves. A detailed case study also demonstrates successful clinical work with a creative substance user. Sex, Drugs, and Creativity will appeal to anyone interested in the links between creativity and substance use, and will be of great use to psychoanalysts and mental health practitioners working with these challenging clients.