Twentieth Century American Psychoanalysis - Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute

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Twentieth Century American Psychoanalysis

Twentieth-Century American Psychoanalysis

by Nancy Chodorow, PhD

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Twentieth century American psychoanalysis began just over a century ago. It developed through an initiating group of psychiatrists, expanded during the psychoanalytic diaspora, and branched in several directions. Yet American psychoanalysis has been centered in and defined internally and throughout the psychoanalytic world by ego psychology. Intersubjective ego psychology, a unique American contribution, further describes development, psychological experience throughout the life cycle, and the clinical encounter.

All psychoanalytic theories and theories of therapeutic action were created in order to help patients and to understand the human condition. The theory of the ego and clinical attention to the ego in all its manifestations are essential components of psychoanalytic theory and practice and of all applications of psychoanalytic thought. Intrapsychically and intersubjectively, ego experiences, identifications, and activities in all their complexity enable psychoanalyst and patient, psychoanalytic scholar and student, not only to work and to love, but also to live.

About the Book

The Routledge Handbook of Psychoanalysis in the Social Sciences and Humanities provides a comprehensive, critical overview of the historical, theoretical and applied forms of psychoanalytical criticism. This path-breaking Handbook offers students new ways of understanding the powers and limits of psychoanalysis, and of the social, cultural and political possibilities of psychoanalytic critique. Available in the library.