The Practice of Psychoanalysis

This volume highlights several of the areas of tension and difficulty that have met psychoanalysis since its inception, and provides an incisive, informative history of various attempts to surmount these, finally leading to the author's own suggestions for a practice of psychoanalysis that remains open to the vicissitudes of the infinite set of processes of the human mind. In drawing from clinical examples and his own experience in addition to a wealth of psychoanalytic theory, the author examines such topics as the referential role of theory and the significance of the analytic space from both a personal and professional standpoint. As the author suggests, the dialectic between psychoanalytic theory and practice is one that is both highly problematic and potentially very nourishing. Thierry Bokanowski's volume provides an invaluable guide to analysts navigating the difficult terrain of contemporary psychoanalytic theory and practice.

About the Author :
Thierry Bokanowski is a founding member and training and supervising analyst of the Societe Psychanalytique de Paris, and a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). He is a former editor of 'La Revue francaise de Psychanalyse', former member of the IPA Publications Committee, former Scientific Secretary to the Institut de Paris, and currently chairs the Executive Committee of the Commission d'Enseignement de la Societe Psychanalytique de Paris. He has published several papers in various psychoanalytical journals, including the 'International Journal of Psychoanalysis'. His books include 'Sandor Ferenczi', and 'De la pratique analytique', translated under the title 'The Practice of Psychoanalysis'.

Review :
What do we mean when we talk of 'practice' in psychoanalysis? The manner in which the analyst works; the method presented to the patient; clinical material that justifies it or the theory that underpins it? The author discusses issues such as these in his exploration of the difficulties encountered in what Freud himself described as the third 'impossible' profession, given the innate contradictions of the transference that may lead to interminable analyses. After discussing the situation of analytical practice in its relationship to the heterogeneity of Freudian and post-Freudian concepts that underlie it, the author suggests that the analyst's personal constructs, based to some extent on his or her own infantile sexual theories, not only play a structuring role from another vertex but also enable the unfolding of a process through which the two protagonists work at transformation. With illustrations taken from his own clinical practice, together with certain complex and historically significant situations with which Freud himself had to deal - the Wolf Man, Emma Eckstein, Sandor Ferenczi - the author discusses how psychoanalysis may drift towards negativism if sexual phenomena are 'declined' in certain ways within the analytical relationship. These 'declensions' concern above all bisexuality, the concept of psychic homosexuality and the refusal of the feminine dimension.'Taking as his fundamental tenet the definition of psychoanalysis that Freud put forward in 1923, Thierry Bokanowski argues that the practice of psychoanalysis brings together clinical experience and theoretical developments. With his extensive experience as a practising and training analyst, he explores the resistances and the blockages that work against the analytical process, and discusses the solutions that Freud's followers - in particular Ferenczi, Winnicott and Bion - introduced in their attempts to overcome these. Given its remarkable clarity and precision, this book is recommended reading not only for students but also for experienced psychoanalysts who will welcome the manner in which it heightens awareness of the issues and challenges that confront psychoanalysis in contemporary society.' - Claude Janin, Director of the Lyon Psychoanalytical Institute (Paris Psychoanalytical Society)'Thierry Bokanowski's latest book represents a significant milestone on the roads travelled by psychoanalytic theory in France over the past two decades. With his recapitulation of how Freud's work developed, the author makes a sharply focussed exploration of the aporiae encountered by the founder of psychoanalysis. Concentrating particularly on the feminine dimension, seduction and negative transference, he shows how these issues relate to interminable analyses. He emphasizes the importance of the psychoanalyst's personal theorization insofar as it represents a third-party perspective that contributes to structuring the analytical session. He develops this remarkable overview with an in-depth approach to the various ways in which sexual matters are expressed clinically in the analytical situation, and makes a thorough study of the refusal of the feminine dimension and the ways in which negativity can influence the psychoanalytic process. The reader will undoubtedly find this book exceptionally interesting, not least because it bridges the gap between psychoanalytic practice in France and many aspects of how the psychoanalytic process is developed in Britain.' - Florence Guignard, Training analyst and former Vice-President of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society