Psychoanalysis
Assesses the contributions of six major psychoanalytic thinkers in the light of current academic and clinical trends in psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalysis: An Interdisciplinary Retrospective offers in-depth discussions of and conversations with six psychoanalytic writers: Christopher Bollas, Nancy Chodorow, Sander L. Gilman, Adam Phillips, and Allen and Joan Wheelis. All are genuinely interdisciplinary in their work, bridging multiple cultural and professional positions, but all are deeply rooted in the humanities. They are all also highly controversial, challenging and critiquing conventional psychoanalytic wisdom while also devoting themselves to expanding psychoanalytic knowledge. Drawing on interviews as well as his own readings, Jeffrey Berman examines the continuities and discontinuities in each writer's work while also exploring the interrelationships between psychoanalysis and the humanities. The book ultimately offers a portrait of psychoanalysis as a work in progress, a plurality of visions that might more aptly be termed psychoanalyses.
Jeffrey Berman is Distinguished Teaching Professor of English at the University at Albany, State University of New York. His many books include Dying to Teach: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Learning; Writing the Talking Cure: Irvin D. Yalom and the Literature of Psychotherapy; and Writing Widowhood: The Landscapes of Bereavement, all published by SUNY Press.