About the Book
Longing: Psychoanalytic Musings on Desire is a contemporary, interdisciplinary exploration of one of psychoanalysis's most foundational and fascinating areas of investigation. This anthology explores the vicissitudes and varieties of desire, its public and private, normative and transgressive, its light and dark expressions. It examines desire in its relational, cultural, clinical, physical, sexual and aesthetic forms.Collectively, these essays demonstrate an understanding of the difficulties of identifying and realizing desire, precisely because it is multiple, omnipresent, shape-shifting, ongoing and, perhaps, always ultimately unfulfillable. They question whether desire is by definition something that cannot be satisfied, and contemplate how we relate to our desires?Interpersonal psychoanalytic practice and theory understands desire not merely as an intrapsychic drive but also as a force shaped by and shaping interpersonal relationships. From within this perspective, a number of the contributors examine a broad variety of clinical manifestations of desire as it struggles for expression or suppression. The issues under examination here include important and, in some instances, under theorized, topics such as dissociated and secret desire, compulsive cross-dressing, kleptomania, sadomasochism, passion within the analytic dyad, the emotional and relational impact of menopause, and the exploration of a womans relationship to her body and its adornments.
Table of Contents:
Contents: Judith Brisman, "Privacy and passion: shadows in the analytic terrain", Philip M. Bromberg ""It never entered my mind": some reflections on desire, dissociation and disclosure", Polly Young-Eisendrath "Secrets of analytic love and the transformation of desire", Adam Phillips "Desiring by myself", Jean Petrucelli ""Take a walk on the wild side": regulation, compulsion and desire", Richard A. Chefetz ""I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then":longing for a coherent mind. Interpreting implicit processes in the psychoanalytic exploration of mind", Ethel S. Person "S & M: I love your pain, do you like my disdain?", Edgar A. Levenson ""Oh what a blow that phantom gave me!": Observations on the rise of virtual desire", Elizabeth Halsted "A shoe is rarely just a shoe: women's accessories and their psyches", Candace Martin "Fetish: fashion, sex, and power", Rachel Maines "Freud and the steam-powered vibrator", Sue Kolod "Lust and unlust: an interpersonal look at menopause", Seth Aronson "Desire's dark alchemy: turning gold into dross", Jill C. Howard ""Dangerous liasons": the splitting of desire in infidelity", Janet Tintner ""Cabbin'd, cribb'd, confin'd: kleptomania reconsidered", Tova Mirvis "Strange dreams and evil inclinations: the emergence of forbidden desire", Avivah Zornberg "Seduced into Eden: the beginning of desire", Lewis Aron "The tree of knowledge, good and evil: conflicting interpretations"
About the Author :
Jean Petrucelli, PhD, is Director and Co-Founder of the Eating Disorders, Compulsions & Addictions Service at the William Alanson White Institute in New York City, where she is also a member of the Teaching Faculty and Supervisor of Psychotherapy. Additionally, she is Co-Editor of 'Hungers and Compulsion: The Psychodynamic Treatment of Eating Disorders and Addictions'. Dr Petrucelli is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Manhattan and lectures on the themes of eating disorders and addiction.
Review :
'Engaging, stimulating, and informing, this essential collection of essays takes us into provocative territory, where longing and desire are nuanced and distinguished. The private and the public, the mundane and the forbidden, along with the neglected, are evocatively and memorably addressed, clinically and theoretically.'- Frances Sommer Anderson, PhD, Editor, Body to Body: Beyond the Talking Cure'There is perhaps no better way to think about being human than to think about what it means to desire. And there is no better way to learn about how contemporary psychoanalysts and psychotherapists are working than to read what they are saying about desire. In this volume, a remarkable group of authors address the theme of desire from a wide range of clinical and theoretical perspectives. This is a book that will be of interest to anybody who cares about the way we experience and express our deepest longings, and that of course means that it will be of interest to anybody, both within and outside the mental health profession.'- Jay Greenberg, PhD, Training and Supervising Analyst, William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology
