Clinical and Theoretical Aspects of Perversion: The Illlusory Bond(The International Psychoanalytical Association Controversies in Psychoanalysis Series)

'Perversion is a challenge for theory and psychoanalytic practice that Juan Pablo Jimenez and Rodolfo Moguillansky, American psychoanalysts known for the originality of their contributions, have managed successfully. In this book they offer us vivid and detailed clinical material of patients of analysis who presented various kinds of perversions, which they accompany by a comprehensive and accurate review of major psychoanalytic contributions on the subject, and their own contributions to it.The reader will find not only scholarship, but also he will find himself trapped in a thriller where the analyst is continually asked to leave his role as analyst to enter a game that fascinates and rejects. In a masterful way the authors describe their own internal vicissitudes in the treatment of these patients, the counter-transferential difficulties and how perversion becomes a source of inevitable collusions in the mind of the analyst. They take us to face, from an intersubjective perspective, dilemmas of interpretation, and to become aware of the situations in which the classic transferential interpretation, when it is not attuned to the psychic reality of the patient can retraumatize him and generate adverse events.We also count, as in thrillers, on researchers who help us review the facts and the storyline. The chapters of the book are accompanied by discussions with relevant well-known figures of psychoanalysis, as P. Fonagy, C. Featherson, and R. Krause. The end result enriches the reader with this exchange of opinions, that is in agreement with the poliphonic character of current pluralistic psychoanalysis.'- Ricardo Bernardi, IJP Latin American Editor; IPA International Research Board Vice Chair

About the Author :
Juan Pablo Jimenez is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health East at University of Chile (Santiago) and Visiting Professor at the University College London. He is a training and supervising analyst in the Chilean Psychoanalytical Association. He has held an important number of positions, including President of the Chilean Psychoanalytical Association (1995-1998), Member of the House of Delegates of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) and Representative at the Council (1994-1996), President of the Latin-American Psychoanalytic Federation, FEPAL (2007-2008). He is a member of the International Research Board and of the Conceptual Integration Committee of the IPA. His research interests centre on issues of clinical epistemology and integration between clinical psychoanalysis and empirical research. Rodolfo Moguillansky, MD, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and Professor at the Buenos Aires Institute of Mental Health, University of Buenos Aires Medical School. He is a full member of the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytic Association, the International Psychoanalytical Association, and the International Federation of Psychotherapy Associations. He has been awarded the Bleger (1998) and Storni (2000) prizes by the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association, the Liberman prize (1999), by the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytic Association, and the FEAP prize (2008) by the Spanish Federation of Psychotherapy Associations.

Review :
Contributors: Carlos R. Featherston, Peter Fonagy, Juan Pablo Jimenez, Rainer Krause, Rodolfo Moguillansky, Heitor Gunther Perdigao'This book discusses the pathological structure that we call perversion, constantly keeping in mind two main issues: the need for clear definitions, and the uniqueness of the viewpoint from which we account for the phenomenon. In this case, the viewpoint is that of considering how perversion appears in the intersubjective field, and how it, therefore, ends up by being a psychic reality in the analyst's mind. In a situation of theoretical pluralism, there is an essential need for a conceptual analysis that clearly defines the basic pathological categories, that distinguishes the experiential dimension of the analytical situation from the metapsychological description, that takes into due account the inferential processes of the analyst at work, and that underlines the importance of the psychogenesis in the comprehension of the perversion. I think that in this sense the book by Jimenez and Moguillansky is an excellent and successful example. The clinical cases and the technical reflections, as well as Hanly's preface and the discussions by Krause and Fonagy, all enrich a book that is already generous towards its readers.'- Jorge Canestri, MD, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and training and supervising analyst for the Italian Psychoanalytic Association and for the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association