Would-Be Wife Killer: A Clinical Study of Primitive Mental Functions, Actualised Unconscious Fantasies, Satellite States, and Developmental Steps

Author:   Vamik D. Volkan
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN:  

9780367329914


Pages:   164
Publication Date:   31 July 2019
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Would-Be Wife Killer: A Clinical Study of Primitive Mental Functions, Actualised Unconscious Fantasies, Satellite States, and Developmental Steps


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Overview

The author believes that studying a therapeutic process closely from its beginning to its termination is one of the best ways to observe, learn, and teach psychoanalytic concepts. This book is unusual since it describes a man's drastic internal psychological changes over forty years. He was thirty-nine years old when he wanted to cut off his wif

Full Product Details

Author:   Vamik D. Volkan
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.460kg
ISBN:  

9780367329914


ISBN 10:   0367329913
Pages:   164
Publication Date:   31 July 2019
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

A beginning therapist meets a would-be wife murderer -- A man with three penises and two vaginas -- My first three months with Attis -- A childhood injury to a body part that stands for a penis and actualised unconscious fantasy -- Thoughts on personality organisations -- The psychotic core -- Beginning outpatient therapy -- Linking interpretations, a flesh-coloured car, and emotional flooding -- Turkey dinners and identification with a therapeutic libidinal object -- Internalisation–externalisation cycles and the alteration of the psychotic core -- Workable transference -- Satellite state and therapeutic play -- Crucial juncture experiences -- Physical illnesses and psychic freedom -- Sunset

Reviews

'This is a story about two men, Dr. Volkan and his patient, Attis, who knew each other for over thirty years. As Dr. Volkan tells us the story, we learn more than we could ever get from a textbook, and about almost all types of mental functioning - including child and adolescent development, what goes on in people's thinking, and how world events can affect us all. Dr. Volkan draws the reader into both an intellectual and a moving emotional understanding of psychosis. He explains what happens in the mind of the therapist trying to help a strange, unhappy, and initially dangerous person. Although a scholarly, integrative tour de force, what makes the book so important is that, like a good teacher, it ""hits home."" As you are alternately shocked, confused, angered, elated, and uplifted, you will not be able to avoid learning from or loving this book. It is psychoanalytic theory at its living, breathing best, told in a way you will never forget.'--Jerome S. Blackman 'In a field that views people struggling with psychosis primarily as receptor sites for molecules, Vamik D. Volkan teaches us about the difference a wise clinician can make by listening to a patient's human story. Would-Be Wife Killer unfolds like a novel, and a page-turner at that, as Volkan masterfully lays out the story of a man who came close to becoming a psychotic murderer. Recounting ""therapeutic stories"" that underlie central unconscious fantasies, and revealing the deeply personal autobiographical basis of his countertransference experience, Volkan shows us how an empathic clinician attuned to meaning can help a person reclaim life, even in the face of psychosis. This is the I Never Promised You A Rose Garden of its time. It has much to teach us about how to engage with difficult, even frightening, patients, and about a clinician whose career has been devoted to a rigorous and coherent way of working with them. This may be Volkan's best clinical book.'--Eric M. Plakun


'This is a story about two men, Dr. Volkan and his patient, Attis, who knew each other for over thirty years. As Dr. Volkan tells us the story, we learn more than we could ever get from a textbook, and about almost all types of mental functioning - including child and adolescent development, what goes on in people's thinking, and how world events can affect us all. Dr. Volkan draws the reader into both an intellectual and a moving emotional understanding of psychosis. He explains what happens in the mind of the therapist trying to help a strange, unhappy, and initially dangerous person. Although a scholarly, integrative tour de force, what makes the book so important is that, like a good teacher, it hits home. As you are alternately shocked, confused, angered, elated, and uplifted, you will not be able to avoid learning from or loving this book. It is psychoanalytic theory at its living, breathing best, told in a way you will never forget.'--Jerome S. Blackman 'In a field that views people struggling with psychosis primarily as receptor sites for molecules, Vamik D. Volkan teaches us about the difference a wise clinician can make by listening to a patient's human story. Would-Be Wife Killer unfolds like a novel, and a page-turner at that, as Volkan masterfully lays out the story of a man who came close to becoming a psychotic murderer. Recounting therapeutic stories that underlie central unconscious fantasies, and revealing the deeply personal autobiographical basis of his countertransference experience, Volkan shows us how an empathic clinician attuned to meaning can help a person reclaim life, even in the face of psychosis. This is the I Never Promised You A Rose Garden of its time. It has much to teach us about how to engage with difficult, even frightening, patients, and about a clinician whose career has been devoted to a rigorous and coherent way of working with them. This may be Volkan's best clinical book.'--Eric M. Plakun


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D. Volkan, Vamik

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