Main description:

Herbert Rosenfeld makes a powerful case both for the intelligibility of psychotic symptoms and the potential benefits of their treatment by psychoanalytic means.

Contents:

Acknowledgements. Part One: Introduction. A Psychoanalytic Approach to the Treatment of Psychosis. Part Two: The Analyst's Contribution to Successful and Unsuccessful Treatment. Some Therapeutic and Anti-therapeutic Factors in the Functioning of the Analyst. Breakdown of Communication between Patient and Analyst. Part Three: The Influence of Narcissism on the Analyst's Task. The Narcissistic Omnipotent Character Structure: A Case of Chronic Nypochondriasis. Narcissistic Patients with Negative Therapeutic Reactions. Destructive Narcissism and the Death Instinct. The Problem of Impasse in Psychoanalytic Treatment. Part Four: The Influence of Projective Identification on the Analyst's Task. Projective Identification in Clinical Practice. Projective Identification and the Problem of Containment in a Borderline Psychotic Patient. Further Difficulties in Containing Projective Identification. Projective Identification and the Psychotic Transference in Schizophrenia. Projective Identification and Counter-transference Difficulties in the Course of an Analysis with a Schizophrenic Patient. Part Five: Conclusion. Afterthought: Changing Theories and Changing Techniques in Psychoanalysis. Appendix: on the Treatment of Psychotic States by Psychoanalysis - An Historical Approach. References. Indexes.