Mapping the Landscape: Explorations in Psychoanalysis offers an overview and exploration of Priscilla Roth’s unique contribution to psychoanalysis over the course of her long and distinguished career.
This book takes the reader on a journey through psychoanalytic clinical practice and the significance of themes such as identity, identification, idealization and reparation. This collection shows a variety of Roth’s interests but also the continuity of her approach – the unconscious thread, which links thoughts and memories together. Through close examination of the moment-to-moment psychoanalytic work, she emphasizes how unconscious processes influence both patient and analyst without either of them becoming aware of it. In this sense, each analysis is unique. The second part of the book allows for reflection on lessons drawn from her work, and how psychoanalysis poses the question of what it means to be oneself for the analyst and the patient.
Reflecting her strong compassion for patients and depth of understanding of the nature of psychoanalysis, this is key reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and anyone interested in the experiences underpinning humanity in each of us.
Table of Contents:
Part I: Clinical Papers 1.Mapping the Landscape: Levels of Transference Interpretation 2. Using Projective Identification 3. Being True to a False Object: A View of Identification 4. Absolute Zero" "A Man Who Doubts His Own Love..." 5. "I Used to Think You Were Wonderful": the persecutory/idealising cycle of melancholia 6. Pity and Disconnection: The misuse of Metaphor 7. The Unconscious Thread and The Here and Now Part II: Lectures and Essay 8. The Oedipus Complex Can Never be Fully Dissolved 9.On Becoming Oneself: Nabokov and The-One-who-Isn't-Super-Pig 10. Melanie Klein on Envy
About the Author :
Priscilla Roth is a training and supervising analyst at the Institute of Psychoanalysis, where she was head of training. Following her degree in psychology and working as a research assistant at the University of California, Berkeley, she trained as a child and adolescent psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic, and an analyst with the British Psychoanalytical Society. She has lectured at both institutions, the University College London, and internationally. She had been elected as a Distinguished Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society in 2022. She published many papers and edited several books, including Imaginary Existences: A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Phantasy, Fiction, Dreams and Daydreams, by Ignês Sodré, and Envy and Gratitude Revisited.
Ignês Sodré is a training and supervising analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society. She has taught extensively in London and abroad, and was the first visiting professorial fellow in psychoanalysis at Birkbeck College. She has published on psychoanalysis and on literature, and authored Imaginary Existences: A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Phantasy, Fiction, Dreams and Daydreams.
Tomasz Fortuna is a psychoanalyst with the British Psychoanalytical Society. He works at the Portman Clinic and in private practice in London. He was a visiting profess or in psychoanalysis at the University Putra Malaysia and co-authored Melanie Klein: The Basics.
Review :
'Reading Priscilla Roth’s papers, collected here for the first time, is a remarkable pleasure: lucid, compassionate and deeply humane, she brings the reader into the consulting room where we follow her careful thinking alongside her experience of her patients. These richly attuned, precisely depicted essays bring psychoanalysis to life. Singularly adept at evoking the texture of an analytic hour, Roth conveys complex theoretical principles in language every analyst will appreciate.'
Dr. Lynne Zeavin, The New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute, Journal of American Psychoanalytic Association
'Mapping the Landscape shows us a skillful clinician and lucid psychoanalytic thinker at work. Priscilla Roth’s essays are important contributions to contemporary Kleinian literature. They are already required reading on various clinical trainings, and, thanks to this book, will deservedly gain a still wider readership. Highly recommended.'
Prof. Daniel Pick, Birkbeck, University of London, and British Psychoanalytical Society
'This is a fine collection of psychoanalytic papers, which reflect Priscilla Roth’s clinical experience and knowledge, and her deep understanding and sympathy with her patients. The writing is clear and direct, and she has the capacity to make even complex ideas accessible to the reader. This book should be of great interest and value to a wide variety of readers.'
Michael Feldman, Distinguished Fellow, British Psychoanalytical Society
'This collection of Priscilla Roth's papers over a lifetime of practice as a distinguished psychoanalyst is prefaced and introduced by lucid contributions by John Steiner, Tomasz Fortuna and Ignes Sodre. These papers by Priscilla Roth are stimulating, insightful and the evidence of an intelligent mind at work on the human condition. We are given access to the very convincing process of her thinking and finding ways to communicate with her patients that is illuminating for all of us working in this field. We highly recommend this interesting and intelligent book.'
Martha Papadakis and Ron Britton, British Psychoanalytical Society
