Transference in Institutional Work with Psychosis and Autism presents Pierre Delion's extensive experience in psychiatric institutions, focusing on the concept of the transferential constellation. Delion first discusses the pioneering work of Francois Tosquelles at the Saint Alban psychiatric hospital, which enabled psychoanalytic treatment to be applied in cases of severe psychopathologies. The book then explains how the transferential constellation can provide a deeper and more effective understanding of a patient's needs by engaging all caregivers within an organisation over the course of the patient's treatment history. Delion describes how regular meetings of all the team participants allow them to express different and even divergent views of the patient and to appreciate their complementary contributions to the institution. The transferential constellation is presented as an important development in the history of patient-centered psychiatric care and a touchstone for its ongoing humanistic development. Transference in Institutional Work with Psychosis and Autism will be of great interest to psychiatrists and psychotherapists in practice and in training. It will also be key reading for other practitioners and caregivers working in mental health institutions.

Pierre Delion is Professor Emeritus in the faculty of medicine at Lille, a child psychiatrist, and a psychoanalyst. His work is as straightforward as it is affecting but is little read in the English-speaking world due to a lack of translation into English. Matthew Bowker, in his excellent translation, rectifies this unfortunate deficit to introduce English-language readers to the affecting and wide-ranging work of Pierre Delion through two of his best-known essays. What is Institutional Psychotherapy? examines the psychiatric establishment and institution, arguing that for institutional psychotherapy to be effective, we must "care for the institution" just as we must attend to the "transferential constellation" of the patient, the latter of which emerges only when the institution respects all the voices (including the patient's) involved in the patient's care. And, as Delion duly notes: "What holds for person-to-person psychiatry also holds true for democracy." The Republic of False Selves maintains that our social bonds have been damaged or destroyed to the extent that the practice and meaning of democracy itself are now in question. Democracy, for Delion, "refers not only to forms of government, but also to a society based on freedom and equality, or more generally still, to a set of values: political, social, or cultural ideals and principles." The democratic project, then, is threatened by contemporary political events, media images, neoliberal and techno-bureaucratic interventions, and even or especially the treatment of the mentally ill. The combination of these two works into a single text invites readers to consider the broader political connections between the clinical institution and society as a whole. Delion's careful thoughtfulness paired with his vast experience and understanding opens up new avenues of discovery to the reader.