Psychoanalysis, the Self, and the World

This book takes psychoanalysis into the 21st century, examining issues of existentialism, postphenomenology, social media, and death and death anxiety that have gone largely ignored in the psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic literature.

Using an interdisciplinary perspective, Leffert explains that it is impossible to close the door of the consulting room. The therapeutic relationship is invaded by the outside world and its relationships for both patient and therapist and cannot be isolated from these influences. Drawing on richly detailed case studies, Leffert demonstrates how the internet, social media, and the metaverse have changed and expanded the self in ways that could not have been imagined in the last century. In turn, Leffert acknowledges recent advances in the neurosciences, and addresses the lack of engagement with their implications for theories and practices of therapeutic action. Finally, the ways in which death and death anxiety impinge on the self, which have also gone mostly undealt with in psychoanalytic literature, become an important focus of this book.

As a novel exploration of interdisciplinary connections, this book will be of use to both scholars and practitioners of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, social network theory, philosophy, and neuroscience.

Mark Leffert was educated in medicine, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis in New York and California. He has maintained a practice of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in Del Mar, Minneapolis, and, currently, Santa Barbara. He has been on the faculty of five psychoanalytic institutes and has been a training and supervising analyst at four of them. He is the author of six prior books and several papers.