About the Book
This book examines the unrecognised prevalence of sadomasochism and perverse thinking in personal relationships as well as the public domain, and discusses the way it contributes to the culture of the victim.The first part traces the origins of perverse pathology and how it operates in obstructing emotional development and producing dysfunctional relationships. This is put in the context of hysteria, exhibitionism, voyeurism, and projective identification and is illustrated with clinical material drawn from the author's thirty years of psychoanalytical practice as well as experiences of couple- and family-therapy and educational consultations.The second half of the book examines current modes of thinking and belief systems with particular emphasis on tribal, basic-assumption mentality. The author examines the legacy of Cartesian dualism and the Enlightenment in contributing to the marginalization of feminine values in favour of negative, masculine control. Fundamentalist belief, the 'New Atheism' and feminism are subjected to particular scrutiny for evidence of perverse thinking leading to internal contradictions and the manifestation of these in the consulting room is illustrated with clinical material. In particular, State interference in family life, sexuality, and personal relationships is discussed and the resultant consequences both for erosion of civil liberties and interference in personal, emotional development. The final section consists of longer case histories.
Table of Contents:
Who This Book is For , Foreword , Introduction: the human context and the developmental imperative , Clinical Issues , Control and helplessness , The core problem: from subversion to perversion , Infantile and adult sexuality , Mothering and the parental couple , Pornography and masturbation: the virtual world , The avoidance of feeling , Projective identification and the claustrum , Sexuality and perversion , Masochism and the emotional orphan , Romantic agony , Hysteria and sadomasochism , Exhibitionism and voyeurism , Social Manifestations , Symbolisation and concrete thinking , Basic tribal assumption thinking and mentality , Perversely religious and religiously perverse , Evangelical atheism , Feminism and the phallic Trojan horse , A child is being murdered , The everlasting baby and the parasite , From victim and blame to a saner society , Case Histories , Abigail: survival through invisibility , Judy and Maria: vendettas against the parent/analyst , Damien: student drop-out and would-be professional psychiatric patient , Kelly: a case of courage in the face of perversity , Mark: the battered husband , Peter and Jim: the black hole of the psyche
About the Author :
J.F. Miller is an analyst, psychotherapist, and child and family psychologist. He was educated at Marlborough College, Wiltshire, and St Catherine's College, Oxford, with postgraduate training in educational psychology at the Tavistock Clinic. He has held teaching posts in primary, secondary, and special education. He was, for some years, the County Psychologist to West Oxfordshire and has created and worked in various consultancy posts to special schools and hostels in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire. He has also consultant and residential social worker experience in Belgium, France, and Norway.
Review :
'John Miller's new book on sadomasochism brims with deep wisdom. Based on a lifetime of rich clinical experience, Miller has written an outstanding volume that not only explains the deep-seated, infantile origins of sadomasochistic perversity, but also illustrates how one makes deep therapeutic contact with sadomasochistic men and women in the consulting room. Drawing upon both classical psychoanalytical conceptualisations, and upon the work of later writers, in particular Donald Meltzer, the author has provided us with a tightly argued, passionate, and clear account of the dangers of sadomasochistic symptomatology and characterology, both in private life and in the culture at large. Above all, he offers us an invaluable blueprint about how we can help people to triumph over their developmental injuries and failures, and progress towards more intimate relatedness.'- Professor Brett Kahr, Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Psychotherapy and Mental Health at the Centre for Child Mental Health in London; Honorary Visiting Professor in the School of Arts at the University of Roehampton; Trustee of the Freud Museum; and author of Sex and the Psyche
