Letters to a Young Psychoanalyst

Written in the form of letters from an experienced analyst to a young colleague, the book draws on South American, French, and British Object Relations theory to examine a wide variety of theoretical and clinical topics. Covering such core issues as transference, trauma, hysteria, the influence of the mother, and love and hate, and drawing on the work of notable analysts such as Winnicott, Mc Dougall, Pankow, and Ferenczi, the book explores the many facets of healing function of psychoanalysis in practice. Moreover, it rejects a sorrowful and harrowing concept of psychoanalysis, insisting instead on the joyous nature of the work of psychic elaboration.