Sexuality, Excess, and Representation

"This superb psychoanalytic book evidences the rigour of Freudian metapsychology, its expression in contemporary clinical practice, and the theoretical developments that it inspires. The chapters attest to the implications of taking into account the movement of the drives, of love and hate, life and death: the sexual is always there, in its most archaic or elaborated forms. However, the negative is also present and active in the authors elaborations. A profound knowledge of the Freudian oeuvre and a creative reading of his work are expressed in the depths of a remarkable clinical experience exposed by Perelberg in such a masterful and subtle way. There is no doubt: this is a psychoanalyst who is alive and vibrant alive in the construction of her concepts and her method, anchored in the original foundations, and yet open to further contributions. The transference, this remarkable Freudian discovery, lends the author its force and meaning as she follows her internal paths of images and words." Catherine Chabert, Training Analyst, French Psychoanalytical Association; Emeritus Professor, University Paris-Descartes "This scholarly, impressively intelligent tour de force starts with a meticulous exposition of Freuds insights on sexuality, offers clear and vivid syntheses of his clinical cases, and considers further theoretical developments. Perelberg examines in detail contemporary views on the sexual psyche, with contributions from her own recent work and that of other influential psychoanalysts. The book is enriched by her background in anthropology and her interest in culture through connections with literature, art, music, cinema." Igns Sodr, Training and Supervising Analyst, British Psychoanalytical Society "This superb psychoanalytic book evidences the rigour of Freudian metapsychology, its expression in contemporary clinical practice, and the theoretical developments that it inspires. The chapters attest to the implications of taking into account the movement of the drives, of love and hate, life and death: the sexual is always there, in its most archaic or elaborated forms. However, the negative is also present and active in the authors elaborations. A profound knowledge of the Freudian oeuvre and a creative reading of his work are expressed in the depths of a remarkable clinical experience exposed by Perelberg in such a masterful and subtle way. There is no doubt: this is a psychoanalyst who is alive and vibrant alive in the construction of her concepts and her method, anchored in the original foundations, and yet open to further contributions. The transference, this remarkable Freudian discovery, lends the author its force and meaning as she follows her internal paths of images and words." Catherine Chabert, Training analyst, French Psychoanalytical Association; Emeritus Professor, University Paris-Descartes "This scholarly, impressively intelligent tour de force starts with a meticulous exposition of Freuds insights on sexuality, offers clear and vivid syntheses of his clinical cases, and considers further theoretical developments. Perelberg examines in detail contemporary views on the sexual psyche, with contributions from her own recent work and that of other influential psychoanalysts. The book is enriched by her background in anthropology and her interest in culture through connections with literature, art, music, cinema." Igns Sodr, Training and Supervising analyst, British Psychoanalytical Society

Rosine Jozef Perelberg is President of the British Psychoanalytic Society, Visiting Professor in the Psychoanalysis Unit at University College London, and Corresponding Member of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society. Prior to embarking on psychoanalysis, she received a PhD in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics. Her books include Psychoanalytic Understanding of Violence and Suicide, Female Experience: Four Generations of British Women Psychoanalysts on Work with Women (with Joan Raphael-Leff), Time and Memory, Dreaming and Thinking, The Greening of Psychoanalysis (with Gregorio Kohon) and Psychic Bisexuality: A British- French Dialogue. She is the author of Time, Space and Phantasy and Murdered Father, Dead Father: Revisiting the Oedipus Complex. She works in London in private practice.

Introduction Part I: The understanding of psychosexuality 1: Psychoanalytic understanding of bisexuality Part II: Excess and representation 2 On excess, trauma and helplessness 3 Negative hallucinations, dreams, hallucinations 4 The analysis of women by women 5 The riddle of anxiety Part III: The uncanny and time 6 One Hundred Years of Solitude