"Anatomy of Regret" has a highly clinical focus, with cases that illustrate how critical psychic change can emerge from the mourning of the grief of psychic regret. This book highlights the developmental achievement of owning the guilt of aggression, and of tolerating insight into the losses one had produced. The author uses the term psychic regret to capture the essence of the process of facing regret consciously. This is in contrast to the split-off and persecutory dynamics of unconscious guilt. Unconscious guilt exposes itself through visceral and cognitive impingements, which are related to internal world enactments, and it relies on unconscious avoidance of the pain and loss involved in facing psychic regret.Dr. Kavaler-Adler s theory of developmental mourning is illustrated in this book through in-depth lively clinical processes (cases and vignettes). The reader is able to witness how those who have faced consciousness of their resistances to experiences of loss and guilt (as referred to by Melanie Klein in her theory of the depressive position) go through the critical psychological transformation, which allows for authentic psychic change. This is a psychological change that has meaning and meaning creativity within it."Anatomy of Regret" weaves the themes of psychoanalysis in its early days with those of current practice. It simultaneously offers vivid case examples, where theory becomes a retrospective way of organizing the progress in the clinical work, and in the lives of patients. Dr. Kavaler-Adler addresses both theoretical and clinical conundrums, as she offers the opportunity for readers to immerse themselves in the journey from internal emptiness to both internal and external richness."

The book begins with the integration of Kleinian and Winnicottian theory from their contrasting, but also complementary, dialectical perspectives with some studies of Melanie Klein s psychobiography. In doing so, the book has particularly drawn on the biographical research of Phyllis Grosskurth, who published a major biography of Melanie Klein in 1988, quite a time after the briefer biography of Hanna Segal. The other side of the Klein-Winnicott dialectic has been addressed by drawing on two biographies of D. W. Winnicott, with some minor references to the short biography of Brett Khar and more vivid and detailed references to the extremely comprehensive study of F. Robert Rodman (2004). The latter part of the volume provides clinical illustrations of the integration of Kleinian and Winnicottian theories. This book s theory and clinical illustrations serve to demonstrate how Melanie Klein s theories and D. W. Winnicott s theories work together. This volume of study shows that Klein s theories of mourning interact with Winnicott s theories on object survival; potential and transitional space; the true self; and developmental vs. narcissistic mirroring. This is exemplified in clinical cases, as well as in psychobiographical cases of women writers."

Anatomy of Regret has a highly clinical focus, with cases that illustrate how critical psychic change can emerge from the mourning of the grief of "psychic regret". This book highlights the developmental achievement of owning the guilt of aggression, and of tolerating insight into the losses one had produced. The author uses the term "psyc

In her earlier books, Susan Kavaler-Adler identified healthy mourning for traumas and life changes as an essential aspect of successful analysis, and drew the distinction between a healthy acceptance of mourning as part of development and pathological mourning, which 'fixes' a patient at an unhealthy stage of development.
This new book brings such distinctions into the consulting room, exploring how a successful analyst can help patients to utilise mourning for past troubles to move them forward to a lasting change for the better, emotionally, psychically and erotically. The author also tackles the controversial issue of spirituality in psychoanalysis, and explores how psychoanalysis can help patients come to terms with difficult issues in a time of great psychic and spiritual disturbance. These themes are brought to life via two richly detailed case studies.

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In her earlier books, Susan Kavaler-Adler identified healthy mourning for traumas and life changes as an essential aspect of successful analysis, and drew the distinction between a healthy acceptance of mourning as part of development and pathological mourning, which 'fixes' a patient at an unhealthy stage of development.
This new book brings such distinctions into the consulting room, exploring how a successful analyst can help patients to utilise mourning for past troubles to move them forward to a lasting change for the better, emotionally, psychically and erotically. The author also tackles the controversial issue of spirituality in psychoanalysis, and explores how psychoanalysis can help patients come to terms with difficult issues in a time of great psychic and spiritual disturbance. These themes are brought to life via two richly detailed case studies.

Related link: Free Email Alerting

The Compulsion to Create: Women Writers and Their Demon Lovers is a fascinating and informative psychological survey of women and the literature they create, especially as reflected by the lives and work of such luminaries as Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Emily Dickinson, Anais Nin, Sylvia Plath, and Edith Sitwell. The reader is treated to such issues as compulsion versus reparation, developmental mourning and creative-process reparation, creative women and the "internal father," and the "demon-lover" theme as literary myth and psychodynamic complex. A highly recommended addition to women's studies, literary studies, and psychological studies supplemental reading lists, "The Compulsion to Create" is original, revealing, insightful, challenging, at times iconoclastic, and always entertaining.