Sexual States of Mind (Psychology, Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy) - Softcover

Meltzer, Donald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1855756730 ISBN 13: 9781855756731

Publisher: Karnac Books, 2008

Synopsis

This book calls for a reappraisment of our entire view of human nature. Meltzer sees sexuality not as an appetite, but instead as an aspect if identity that structures the personality itself, manifest in childish, adult, or perverse states of mind.

About this title

About the Author

Donald Meltzer (1923–2004) is widely known as a psychoanalyst and teacher throughout Europe and South America. He is the author of many works on psychoanalytic theory and practice, including The Psychoanalytical Process, Sexual States of Mind, Explorations in Autism, The Kleinian Development, Dream Life, Studies in Extended Metapsychology, and The Claustrum.

Review

“...a ground-breaking psychoanalytic study on sexuality which maintains its originality today, thirty years after its first publication. The book is a revision of psychoanalytic theory, starting with the work of Freud himself and including Melanie Klein’s contributions on the early Oedipus Complex and the Depressive Position. But more than that, it is a metapsychological study of sexuality which provides a different perspective from more well-known ones that relate simply to a descriptive or behavioral point of view. In differentiating adult sexuality from infantile sexuality and polymorphism and perversion, taking unconscious phantasy and the notion of the primal scene as the pivotal point, Meltzer proposes a unified theoretical and clinical model which has proved of particular help in the field of the psychopathology of addictions and perversions." (Virginia Ungar)

"At the core of Sexual States of Mind is a powerful insight that calls for a reassessment of our entire view of human nature. In this work Meltzer sees sexuality not as an appetite, but instead as an aspect of identity that structures the personality itself, manifest in childish, adult, or perverse states of mind." (Hugo Marquez, Maria Elena Petrilli, Mauro Rossetti)

“[A] major contribution to psychoanalysis. I know of no other work that has brought the relevance of sexuality (pivotal in Freud's discoveries) to Kleinian analysis in such a clear and significant way, upholding its centrality in both normal development and in various forms of psychopathology. After reviewing the history of sexuality in psychoanalysis and its structural implications, Meltzer's masterpiece appears in the section on Clinical Sexual Psychopathology. The distinction between adult and infantile sexual states of mind, and between infantile polymorphous and infantile perverse sexuality, makes a unique contribution to the clinical practice of any analyst. The different primal scenes that accord with the different sexual states of mind, the classification of perversions and addictions, the outline of perversion of the transference, and much more, are gems that have changed my work ever since I included them in my toolbox.” (Robert Oelsner, Psychoanalyst)

Edition details

• Publisher: Karnac Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1855756730
• ISBN 13: 9781855756731
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 195