From Publishers Weekly
Examining contemporary psychoanalysis as it is experienced by both analysts and their patients, Mitchell, a training analyst at Manhattan's William Alanson White Institute, cogently delineates the ways contemporary analysis has moved away from Freud's original vision, particularly in regard to drive theory. Mitchell views psychoanalysis as a fluid process in which the developing relationship between analyst and analysand--specifically in the gradual expression and shaping of their own desires and fears--becomes the field on which deep change is facilitated. Setting his observations in a theoretical context, he cites the work of such modern psychoanalytic thinkers as David Winnicut, Heinz Kohut, Melanie Klein and Daniel Stern, among others. He argues that "analytic method is not archaeological and reconstructive; it does not simply expose what is there. Rather it is constructive and synthetic; it organizes whatever is there into patterns it itself supplies." Exploring current theories of self along with such clinical issues as the beginnings and endings of analytic treatment, Mitchell writes with clarity and passion. Psychotherapy Book Club and Behavioural Science Book Service alternates. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Book News, Inc.
Mitchell, a central figure in the modernization of psychoanalysis, shows how the field is moving beyond the confines of Freudian drive theory to encompass the concerns of contemporary life, emphasizing how the tensions and reconciliations between the wishes and needs of both analyst and analysand--their "hopes and dreads"--become the medium of change. Sophisticated but generally jargon-free and accessible to general readers. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.


Book Description
A probing look at today's revolutions in psychoanalytic thought and practice by one of the most original and incisive writers in the field.


From the Publisher
A probing look at today's revolutions in psychoanalytic thought and practice by one of the most original and incisive writers in the field.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Whereas classical analysis focuses on conflicts over sexual and aggressive impulses residing within the patient, the psychoanalysis Mitchell presents, and beautifully illustrates with vivid case examples, emphasizes the wishes and needs of both analyst and analysand. The tensions and reconciliations between them - their "hopes and dreads" - become the medium of change. Hope and Dread in Psychoanalysis presents a vision of the analytic process that is both distinctly personal and interpersonal, integrating many currents of relational thinking, including object relations theories, self psychology, existential psychoanalysis, and much more. The book synthesizes two broad revolutions in recent psychoanalytic thought: a revolution in theory concerning the question, "What does the patient need?" and a revolution in metatheory concerning the question, "What does the analyst know?" Never before have these questions and their rich interconnections been explored with such depth and thoroughness. The book also illuminates the ways in which the concept of self has become the central theoretical construct for addressing meaning in contemporary psychoanalysis. Here is a probing look at today's revolutions in psychoanalytic thought and clinical practice, by one of the most original and incisive writers on the psychoanalytic scene today.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Examining contemporary psychoanalysis as it is experienced by both analysts and their patients, Mitchell, a training analyst at Manhattan's William Alanson White Institute, cogently delineates the ways contemporary analysis has moved away from Freud's original vision, particularly in regard to drive theory. Mitchell views psychoanalysis as a fluid process in which the developing relationship between analyst and analysand--specifically in the gradual expression and shaping of their own desires and fears--becomes the field on which deep change is facilitated. Setting his observations in a theoretical context, he cites the work of such modern psychoanalytic thinkers as David Winnicut, Heinz Kohut, Melanie Klein and Daniel Stern, among others. He argues that ``analytic method is not archaeological and reconstructive; it does not simply expose what is there. Rather it is constructive and synthetic; it organizes whatever is there into patterns it itself supplies.'' Exploring current theories of self along with such clinical issues as the beginnings and endings of analytic treatment, Mitchell writes with clarity and passion. Psychotherapy Book Club and Behavioural Science Book Service alternates. (Oct.)

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