Psychoanalysis of the Psychoses: Current Developments in Theory and Practice (The International Psychoanalytical Association Psychoanalytic Ideas and Applications Series)

Psychoanalysis of the Psychoses brings together a distinguished international set of contributors, offering a range of views and approaches, to explore the latest thinking in the psychoanalytic treatment of psychosis and related disorders.

Drawing on findings from neuroscience, theory and clinical material from many schools of psychoanalytic thought, this book offers a comprehensive guide to understanding how psychosis is conceptualised from a psychoanalytic perspective. It looks at how to work with psychotic patients, typical problems in treating psychosis and the role of pharmacology. It demonstrates the relational dimension, capable of strengthening the patient’s observing Ego and facilitating the integration of the different areas of the personality. This process can identify and work through the main psychological stress factors involved in psychotic disturbances, transforming chaotic thoughts into springboards for important insights, and offering patients the precious chance to construct for the first time a creative relationship with their own existence.

Psychoanalysis of the Psychoses will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists as well as psychiatrists wishing to draw upon psychoanalytic ideas in their work.

Riccardo Lombardi, MD, is a Psychoanalyst and Psychiatrist. He maintains a full-time private practice in Rome, Italy, and teaches at the Roman Psychoanalytic Institute of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). He is also a Training and Supervising Analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society.

Luigi Rinaldi is a Psychiatrist and Training Analyst, and Member of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society and IPA. He has been Head Psychiatrist and has taught in the University schools of specialization in Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology in Naples, Italy.

Sarantis Thanopulos is a Psychiatrist and Supervising and Training Analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society and IPA, based in Naples, Italy.