Interpersonal Psychoanalysis: A Contemporary Introduction

In this book, Anna Maria Loiacono introduces the reader to the origins of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis, its most important concepts, and their clinical value.

Throughout the chapters, Loiacono navigates historically through the principles of Harry Stack Sullivan, clearly and succinctly outlining the ideas of those thinkers who followed, to the latest reflections of Contemporary Interpersonal Psychoanalysis. Illustrated with case vignettes, this book addresses concepts such as dissociation, differences between splitting and dissociation, countertransference, enactments, field theory, hermeneutics, the unconscious, the unformulated experience, self-disclosure, relational and interpersonal psychoanalysis, change and the use of the therapist’s subjectivity, as they are currently considered in the interpersonal approach, seen from the perspective of Loiacono’s personal point of view and professional experience.

Part of the Routledge Introductions to Contemporary Psychoanalysis series, this book is a vital read for all analysts in practice and training, as well as psychologists and psychiatrists.

Anna Maria Loiacono is a Relational and Interpersonal Psychoanalyst who lives and works in Florence, Italy. She is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Institute of Analytic Psychotherapy of Florence and teaches in Italian and foreign Schools of Psychotherapy. She is the Secretary General of the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS).