About the Book
Enrique Pichon Riviere was a pioneering psychoanalyst, writing in Spanish in Argentina in the middle of the 20th century. He has never been translated into English, so his ideas are only known indirectly through the work of students and colleagues. His work has inspired not only the succeeding generations of Latin American analysts, but also spawned the fields of analytic family therapy and dynamic group work and organizational consultation. This book presents Pichon-Riviere's groundbreaking work in English for the first time. The main papers represent his theory of psychoanalysis including the link (el vinculo), spiral process, the theory of unifying illness, the action of interpretation, and the role and capacity of working in groups and in the family group. The book has three sections. In the first, Roberto Losso and Lea S. de Setton narrate Pichon Riviere's biography relating elements of his life to his subsequent work. In the second part, the editors present several original texts of Pichon Riviere that demonstrate his multiplicity of interests, covering classic psychiatry, dynamic psychiatry, psychoanalysis, as well as group psychotherapy, family and couple psychotherapy, social psychology, and applied psychoanalysis. These writings testify to Pichon Riviere as an original thinker, years ahead of his time. In the third part, several commentators discuss Pichon Riviere's and clinical practice. These include Roberto Losso's contribution, a panorama of Pichon's ideas alongside his personal experience as Pichon's student. Rosa Jaitin describes the experience of teaching Pichon's ideas in Lyon, and in other French cities; Rene Kaes discusses meeting Pichon, and offers his translated introduction to the French version of the complete work of Pichon; Rosa Marcone interviews Ana P. de Quiroga, Pichon's life partner for many years and subsequently the director of the School of Social Psychology that Pichon founded; Alberto Eiguer narrates an experience with Pichon and his influence on Eiguer's ideas and writing; and Vicente Zito Lema gives his vision of Pichon's work from sociological and philosophical perspectives. Finally, David Scharff summarizes Pichon's major ideas and offers a comparison between these concepts and object relations theory. The book also includes a glossary by the editors of Pichon-Riviere's major concepts and terms.
About the Author :
Roberto Losso, MD, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and a member of the Argentine Psychoanalytical Association and the International Psychoanalytical Association. He is also the Consulting Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires; a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Family and Couple at FEPAL (Latin American Psychoanalytic Federation); Clinical Professor of Family and Couple Therapy, John F. Kennedy University; and a board member of the International Association of Family and Couple Psychoanalysis. He is also the author of 'Family Psychoanalysis: Theoretical and Technical Considerations', as well as several texts on his personal experience with Pichon Riviere. David E. Scharff, MD, is Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Association's Committee on Family and Couple Psychoanalysis; Chair of the Board, Founder and former Director of the International Psychotherapy Institute, Washington, DC; and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal 'Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in China', and author and editor of numerous books and articles, including 'The Sexual Relationship', 'Object Relations Family Therapy' (with Jill Savege Scharff), 'Object Relations Couple Therapy', 'The Interpersonal Unconscious', and 'Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy'. Lea S. de Setton, PhD, is a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association; faculty member, International Psychotherapy Institute and International Institute for Psychoanalytic Training, Washington, DC; former chair of IPI-Panama; faculty member, Doctorate Program, Catholic University (USMA), Panama; and board member, International Association for Family and Couple Psychoanalysis. She is a psychologist, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist in private practice with individuals, couples and families in Panama.
Review :
'Pichon Riviere's important work is finally available to the English-speaking reader. It is, together with the work of Klein, Fairbairn, and Winnicott, a fundamental contribution to contemporary psychoanalytic object relations theory. Pichon Riviere's original concept of "link" explains the relational linkages between self and object representations, and expands the concept of the link to the description of unconscious intrapsychic group formations. The present collection of his writings describes the relation between these intrapsychic group structures and the individual's unconscious relations to the concentric cycles of family and social dynamics, and provides an integrating frame for the psychoanalytic exploration of groups and social organizations. The complementary chapters by distinguished contemporary authors influenced by Pichon Riviere included in this volume make for an actualized, stimulating overview of this important theoretician.'-Otto Kernberg, past president of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA)'It is indeed fortunate that Roberto Losso, Lea S. de Setton, and David E. Scharff have undertaken this project of illuminating the original psychoanalytical productions of Pichon Riviere and of displaying his clinical and theoretical proposals to English-speaking psychoanalysts. At a time when psychoanalysis was focused on the internal world, Pichon Riviere proposed a social psychology for psychoanalysis, emphasizing the necessary links between internal and external worlds. Pichon Riviere's original and multi-causal line of thought is demonstrated both by his own writing and by the contemporary commentaries gathered brilliantly by the editors in this important volume.'- Leticia Glocer Fiorini, MD, past president of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association and former Chair of the Publications Committee of the IPA
