Price: £21.38
Published: 2007






Synopsis
This book compares different psychoanalytic thinking and models - from a rigorously Freudian perspective - on three concepts of great theoretical and clinical importance: 'Language', 'Symbolization', and 'Psychoses'. These concepts are significantly interwoven with each other both in personal development as well as in the atypical and individual forms of pathology. The authors have endeavoured to reply to one of the foremost queries that has occupied Jacqueline Amati Mehler's thinking: whether and how the acquisitions of modern psychoanalysis have brought about changes in our criteria of analysability; whether our increased knowledge has lead to a greater therapeutic capacity, as she believes; and whether, as a consequence, we must endorse the so-called flexibility of the setting and the classical methods, as she does not believe.

Description
'This present book...is our way of honouring Jacqueline Amati Mehler, in the hope that its contents of critical and dialectic confrontation on fundamental issues of psychoanalysis may enrich not only the intimate circle of her friends, but also the wider audience of all those who today love and practise psychoanalysis.'
- Giovanna Ambrosio and Simona Argentieri, from the Foreword
'"Language, Symbolization and Psychosis" is a remarkable achievement, in which the reader will find fourteen stimulating papers and a comprehensive introduction dealing with the main analytic themes to which Jacqueline Amati Mehler contributed with her intelligence, clinical skills, wide analytic and humanistic culture and last, but not least, her tireless dedication to and passion for psychoanalysis, for its teaching and for its institutional life.'
- Claudio Lars Eizirik (President of the International Psychoanalytical Association)
'"Language, Symbolization and Psychosis", denotes the scope of Dr Amati Mehler's scholarly contributions to psychoanalysis as well as the primary focus of the fourteen chapters contributed by outstanding psychoanalytic scholars. There could be no more fitting tribute to Dr Amati Mehler. Approached from a variety of perspectives, the unifying theme is the complex and still enigmatic process of symbolization. It is not only a core concept in various developmental theories and an important cornerstone in understanding severe pathologies, but is also at the heart of what makes us human. The text expands horizons and like most significant scholarly works, raises as many questions as it answers. Readers of this volume will be stimulated, challenged, and richly rewarded.'
- Lawrence B. Inderbitzin, M.D., D.L.F.A.P.A., Professor Emeritus, Emory University School of Medicine, Training and Supervising Analyst,
Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute
'Following Amati Mehler's incisive and crystalline ouevre, a remarkable international group of leading psychoanalytic thinkers here add fresh contributions to our understandings of the conversation that is human life. The nature of self and other, being and language, foreign and familiar, time and timelessness, knowing and not knowing - the essence of being human is addressed in this exceptional work with a consistently disciplined open-mindedness, one fresh and free of parochial posturing. Offered a collection rich with clinical illustrations that ring true to life, we are left feeling the stimulation of participating in an exciting conference, one that sparkles with original ideas, that ends with new questions opened. This important accomplishment is exactly what one would expect from work done in Amati Mehler's footsteps.'
- Warren S. Poland, M.D

About the Editors
Giovanna Ambrosio is a full member of the Italian Psychoanalytical Association and the International Psychoanalytical Association. She is chief editor of the Journal Psicoanalisi, current overall Chair of the IPA Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis (COWAP) and former European co-chair of the Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis (2001-2005).
Simona Argentieri is a full Member, Training and Supervising Analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytical association. She has dedicated much thought to the relationship between psychoanalysis, culture and art, particularly the cinema. She is the author of many essays and books on the above subjects.
Jorge Canestri MD is a training and supervising analyst for the Italian Psychoanalytical Association (A.I.Psi) and for the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association. She is also Professor of Psychology of Health at the Roma 3 University, co-author of "The Babel of the Unconscious. Mother Tongue and Foreign Languages in the Psychoanalytic Dimension" and editor (with Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber and Anna Ursula Dreher) of "Pluralism and Unity? Methods of research in psychoanalysis". and of "Psychoanalysis: from practice to theory".