(New Library of Psychoanalysis) 1st edition
by Albert Ciccone (Author), Marc Lhopital (Author)
Based
on rich clinical experience and on theory from numerous
psychoanalytical works, this book explores and analyzes the emergence
and development of the psychic life.
Birth to Psychic Life
explores the genesis of the psychic apparatus, reconstructs the
development of subjectivity, with its ups and downs in babies as in all
subjects, and studies the relationship between mental states at the dawn
of psychic life and those characteristic of psychopathology. The book
refers to Freudian, Kleinian and post-Kleinian works, proposing
articulations between the different theoretical models. The referenced
works’ contributions to the understanding of early psychic disorders, as
well as to the implications of infantile psychic suffering in
adulthood, are essential. The authors identify the three psychic
constellations, recognized by many, that accompany the psychic birth and
suggest new more adequate names in view of current works on
subjectivity: the auto-sensual position, the symbiotic position and the
depressive position. Many other new and original proposals are developed
by the authors.
Providing tools to think about the processes
of psychic growth, this book will be of interest to all psychoanalysts
and psychotherapists working with infants and interested in the impact
of early psychic development throughout life.
