Although there is a vast literature on aggression, comparatively little has been written on the issue of violence and even fewer clinical discussions have been published on the violent patient.
This pioneering book presents a collection of case studies on the intensive psychoanalytic treatment of patients who have committed serious acts of violence against themselves or others. Each detailed clinical account demonstrates the effectiveness of the psychoanalytic treatment and furthers our understanding of the nature of violence.
The Psychoanalytic Understanding of Violence and Suicide also contains a comprehensive review of the existing literature on aggression and violence from America, England and France, presenting major themes contained in this literature which will be of interest to all those working with violent and suicidal patients.
Table of Contents:
Shengold, Foreword. Britton, Preface. Jozef Perelberg, Introduction. Jozef Perelberg, Psychoanalytic Understanding of Violence and Suicide: A Review of the Literature and Some New Formulations. Fonagy, Target, Towards Understanding Violence: The Use of the Body and the Role of the Father. Campbell, The Role of the Father in a Pre-suicide State. Jozef Perelberg, A Core Phantasy in Violence. Bateman, Narcissism and its Relation to Violence and Suicide. Davies, Technique in the Interpretation of the Manifest Attack on the Analyst. Schachter, The Paradox of Suicide: Issues of Identity and Separateness. Fonagy, Final Remarks.
About the Author :
Rosine Jozef Perelberg is a Training Analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies at University College London. She is researching a project at the Anna Freud Centre which offers subsidised analysis to young adults and is also in private practice.
Review :
"Perelberg has produced a book of the greatest topical importance to anyone involved in psychoanalysis. The review of the literature is by far the best on the subject. The various chapters of this most skillfully edited book are beautifully written, and lay the foundations for a psychoanalytic theory of violence and suicide. They also make an important contribution to a theory of technique that understands symptoms as solutions to conflicts. It should be a standard reading for many years to come." - Joseph Sandler, Late Professor Emeritus in Psychoanalysis, University College London, UK
"The clinical material is detailed, vivid, and convincing; The theoretical discussion is wide and the result is a book of great interest to anyone involved in psychoanalysis." - Ronald Britton
"...this book constitutes an important contribution to the understanding of those patients that engage in violent acts. I felt the need for further elucidation on the difference between an actual suicidal act and a violent attack against another. ... As a bonus, most of the patients described in this book are young adults and in the clinical descriptions one can perceive those specific developmental aspects of the transition from adolescence to adulthood that bear an influence on this kind of psychopathology." - Carlos Fishman, Psychoanalyst, Portman Clinic, London, UK
