This book contains two brilliant essays by one of the foremost thinkers in the field of psychoanalysis. In the first essay, 'The Magic of Winnicott,' Adam Phillips makes clear the subtlety and wisdom of Winnicott's concept of play. In 'The Cure for Psychoanalysis' he works through psychoanalytic theories about cure and instructs us to take most seriously those that free the analyst and patient to wonder and to take pleasure in the unknowable adventure ahead of them.

Adam Phillips is a psychoanalyst and a visiting professor in the English Department at the University of York. He is the author of several well-known volumes, all widely acclaimed, including On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored, Going Sane, Side Effects and recently On Kindness, co-written with historian Barbara Taylor, On Balance, Missing Out and One Way and Another.

The Relational Revolution in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy

Written by a leading teacher and scholar of relational thinking, The Relational Revolution in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy provides a comprehensive overview of relational psychoanalysis in one concise volume. The book investigates clinical theory and technique as well as the challenges of conducting psychotherapy during the extraordinary twinned circumstances of a global pandemic and an equally widespread societal awakening to the consequences of systemic racism.

Steven Kuchuck, LCSW is a faculty member, supervisor, Board member, and co-director of curriculum for the adult training program in psychoanalysis at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies and faculty, Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational Studies. He is Editor-in-Chief of Psychoanalytic Perspectives.

In this compelling book, the first in the new Freud Museum London series, Professor Brett Kahr describes how Sigmund Freud endured innumerable emotional pandemics during his eighty-three years of life, ranging from unsubstantiated accusations by medical colleagues to anti-Semitic abuse, the loss of one daughter to Spanish flu and the arrest of another child by the Gestapo, to his own painful cancer treatments and his final flight from Adolf Hitler’s Austria. Freud navigated these personal and political tragedies while simultaneously creating a method of healing which has helped countless millions deal with unbearable trauma and distress.

Professor Brett Kahr has worked in the mental health profession for over forty years. A clinical registrant of both the British Psychoanalytic Council and the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, he is Senior Fellow at the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology in London and, also, Visiting Professor of Psychoanalysis and Mental Health at Regents University London.
 

In this unique book, Clara Mucci explores contemporary therapeutic approaches to intergenerational trauma, focusing on the key factors that can foster resilience and healing. She looks through the prism of attachment theory and developmental neuroscience but also explores the power of art, memoir and other frameworks, to discover what constitutes a predisposition to resilience – in individuals, and in society.

Clara Mucci is a psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapist practicing in Milan and Pescara, Italy. She is Full Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Chieti, where she taught English Literature and Shakespearean Drama. She received a PhD from Emory University, Atlanta, and was a fellow in 2005-2006 at the Institute of Personality Disorder, New York, directed by Otto Kernberg. The author of several monographies on Shakespeare, Psychoanalysis and Literary Theory, she has taught in London (Westminster College), Atlanta, and New York (Hunter College).

The Unanswered Self: The Masterson Approach to the Healing of Personality Disorders

This review of Masterson's legacy cites his later integration of neurobiology as well as attachment theory, and considers inclusion of such post-Masterson concepts as self-state theory. Clinical examples are offered throughout to illustrate this dynamic approach to a therapeutic challenge now at the forefront of today's caseloads.

Candace Orcutt, MA, PhD, holds a doctorate in Clinical Social Work, and is a certified psychoanalyst and widely published author. She worked for twenty years as an associate of James F. Masterson.

What is the secret of a long and contented marriage?

In Contented Couples, Anne Power interviews eighteen couples in the USA and the UK to discuss how they found each other and what made it work. As well as couples brought together by family arrangement or random romance, we meet those introduced deliberately by friends, or through dating agencies and the internet.

Woven through the book are expert, jargon-free explanations from an experienced psychotherapist of how couples form a bond, how they fight and how they repair. Each chapter ends with questions which invite us to reflect on our own relationships and to benefit personally from this chance to eavesdrop on contented couples. Almost all the couples interviewed have faced major challenges along the way – but their attachment grew, and relationships survived. In this book they tell us why.

Anne Power has an MA in History and was a nurse before studying attachment theory at The Bowlby Centre. After qualifying in couples work with Relate she trained in Emotion Focused Couple Therapy (EFT). She has published papers on attachment and one book Forced Endings: Attachment and loss in retirement. She has contributed to oral history projects and sees her interviewing and story-collecting as borrowing from that tradition. After working for twenty-five years with clients in difficulty she wanted to hear from contented couples.

Is it possible not to be confused about race? Is it possible to respond authentically to the hurt and discomfort of racism? The construct of race is an integral part of Western society's DNA and if we are to address the social injustice of racism, we need to have the race conversation. Yet all too often, attempts at such a dialogue are met with silence, denial, anger or hate. The Race Conversation explores how the damage and distress caused by racism lives not just in our minds, but principally in the body.

Eugene Ellis is the Director and founder of the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network, the UK's largest independent organisation to specialise in working therapeutically with Black, Africa, Caribbean and South Asian people. He is also a psychotherapist with a special interest in body-orientated therapies and facilitating a dialogue around race and mental wellbeing through articles, podcasts and blog posts as well as within organisations and psychotherapy trainings.

The Burden of Heritage: Hauntings of Generational Trauma on Black Lives

The Burden of Heritage: Hauntings of Generational Trauma on Black Lives is a timely addition to the literature on inter- and transgenerational trauma. The book addresses black ancestral trauma passed down the generations, highlighting the ongoing impact on black lives.

Aileen Alleyne explores the unheeded dimensions of individual and collective identity trauma, paying particular attention to the themes and concepts of identity shame, black identity wounding and cultural enmeshment.

The author expands on her striking concept, the 'internal oppressor', that inhibits self-belief, full agency and potential. She reworks the psychoanalytic concept of ‘hauntings’, separating it from Freud’s interpretation as unconscious repression, and presents it as a living and conscious element of the black trauma burden. To break the cycle of generational trauma, Alleyne suggests an active process of separation from archaic attachments, and engagement in intentional modes of transformation.

Dr Aileen Alleyne is a UKCP registered psychodynamic psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and organisational consultant in private practice. She is a visiting lecturer at training institutions and a consultant on race and cultural diversity in organisations, such as the NHS, Social Services, Education, and the Police Services. Her clinical research examining black workers' experiences in three UK statutory bodies, namely, the NHS, Education and Social Services, makes a significant contribution to the discourse on racism as a living trauma. Highlighting the concept of 'the internal oppressor', her work offers ways of deepening understanding of black psychological reactions to the wounding impact of racism. Aileen is the author of several book chapters and journal papers exploring themes on black/white dynamics, shame and identity wounding, and working with issues of Difference and Diversity in the workplace.

Darkness Was My Candle: An Odyssey of Survival and Grace

Born into poverty and violence, Lora's early life was one of extreme vulnerability. She was prostituted for the first time at the age of nine and suffered unspeakable treatment from those who should have protected her. Early trauma led to her institutionalization soon after she started college, an incarceration she would not have survived but for a courageous nurse who fought for her release. Fifty years later, with an advanced degree in clinical psychology, a long career as a successful mental health professional, a leading educator and sought-after public speaker, Lora revisited the grounds of the Illinois state mental hospital where she was once kept in inhumane, degrading, and life-threatening circumstances.

Lora DeVore is a visionary leader, sought-after speaker and powerful storyteller. She integrates her experience as a psychotherapist and educator in her role at PrairieCare in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For the past twenty years, she has also been a senior faculty member with the Washington, D.C., internationally recognized Center for Mind-Body Medicine.

"Unlocked is an exquisitely compassionate and riveting window into our hearts and minds that will leave you thinking about these patients, yourself, and the lives of those you love long after you read the last word. The beauty of our messy humanity and the hope for redemption shine through on every page." - Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed.

Anastasia Piatakhina Giré is accredited with the UK Council for Psychotherapy and European Certificate of Psychotherapy. She has practised therapy for a decade, with clients online around the world and in four languages. She now lives and works in Paris, France and is finalizing her DPsych at Middlesex University in London. She is also a faculty member of the Online Therapy Institute, London.