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About the Book
In this book of essays, over 40 successful writers in varied fields —poetry, science, the performing and visual arts, psychoanalysis, journalism, literature and more— explore what drives them to write, and to work at their craft.
In contributions arranged under three headings— “Models and Mentors,” “Urges and Traumas,” and “Evidence and Experiences”—each writer explores their personal understanding of writing as a psychological necessity. In varying ways, these candid, often emotional essays reveal a range of intimate, mysterious and unpredictable purposes and motivations.
Driven to Write provides fresh, practical, and imaginative approaches to literary art for aspiring and established writers alike.
About the Editors:
Ellen Pinsky, PsyD, is the author of Death and Fallibility in the Psychoanalytic Encounter: Mortal Gifts (Routledge, 2017), a collection of essays about psychoanalytic ethics. About that book Steven Levy writes: “This is a book to be read alongside Freud’s Papers on Technique.” Ellen came to psychoanalysis as a second profession following twenty-five years as a middle school English teacher. She says her experience in the classroom with 12 year-olds taught her most of what she needed to know to become a creditable clinician. In 2014 she was awarded BPSI’s Deutsch Prize for her essay “The Olympian Delusion.”
Michael Slevin, LCSW-C, draws from his experience as a psychoanalyst and journalist to find fresh perspectives on psychoanalytic ideas. He recently co-edited The Trauma of Racism: Lessons from the Therapeutic Encounter (2023), which was heralded as a “humanistic approach to the problem of racial oppression”.
