Motive for Metaphor
Regular price
€28.50
This book is a small anthology: each chapter a kind of meditation-on poetry and psychoanalysis; on a poem, sometimes two; on poetry in general; on thought itself. The poems are beautiful, some are contemporary, some are classical and well worth a reader's attention. "The motive for metaphor" is the title of a short poem of Wallace Stevens in which he says he is "happy" with the subtleties of experience. He likes what he calls the "half colours of quarter things," as opposed to the certainties, the hard primary "reds" and "blues." To grasp and make sense of what is elusive (and beautiful), that is, for the essential and puzzling condition of poetry, we are obliged to make metaphors. The same is perhaps true of psychoanalysis-this is the essential argument of the book.The chapters were originally poetry columns that the author wrote for Psychologist-Psychoanalyst and Division/Review (both journals of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association). The chapters are arranged alphabetically by poet but otherwise follow no conceptual order. The author hopes that they might be read that way too-the book to be picked up, a few chapters read and thought about, and then put aside for reading more at another time.With a Foreword by Nancy McWilliams, PhD.
Henry M. Seiden, PhD, ABPP, is a psychologist and psychoanalyst who lives and practices in Forest Hills, New York. He has published poetry in a number of journals including 'Poetry, Literal Latte, Passager, Midstream' and the 'Journal of the American Medical Association'. He has also published a chapbook called 'Tinnitus'. His published professional papers include articles on Wallace Stevens, Ernest Hemingway, the longing for home, the use of metaphor in psychotherapy, on using poetry in psychotherapy with children, and on mindfulness, among other subjects.He is co-author (with Christopher Lukas) of 'Silent Grief: Living in the Wake of Suicide' (Jessica Kingsley, 2007), which was originally published by Scribners and is now in its fourth printing. It has been translated into Chinese, Portuguese and Russian and has been in English as well as American editions.Seiden is a member the Board of Editors of 'Psychoanalytic Psychology'. He has been a member at large of the Board of Directors of Division 39, the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association, and is currently its Publications Chair.