Ignês Sodré was born in Brazil, where she qualified as a clinical psychologist before coming to London in 1969 to train at the British Institute of Psychoanalysis. She is a Fellow and a Training and Supervising Analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society. She has taught extensively in London and abroad, and was the first visiting professorial Fellow in Psychoanalysis at Birkbeck College. She has published many papers on psychoanalysis and on literature; this is her second book.

"This is a great book by a superb observer of both psychoanalysis and literature. Ignes Sodre evidently loves the richness that psychoanalysis brings to our clinical understanding and she can apply the same approach to the authors and to the characters of literature. Inspired by her sensitive, intelligent and humorous accounts, we can find surprising new pleasures in much loved classics." - John Steiner, Training Analyst, British Psychoanalytical Society,Author of Psychic Retreats, Seeing and Being Seen"This is the work of a subtle clinician with a passion for literature. Ignes Sodre has a deep interest in the vicissitudes of human character and the varieties of story telling. She has memorable things to say about the pains and pleasures of psychic life, as glimpsed in the novel and encountered in the consulting room. In these pages, she deftly explores dreams and defences, disappointments and desires, in the company of George Eliot, Flaubert, Freud, Klein, and others. Imaginary Existences deserves a wide readership." – Professor Daniel Pick, Birkbeck College, University of London"In this book, Ignês Sodré has successfully brought together literature and psychoanalysis in a creative and insightful dialogue that enriches both. Sodré has extended her skilful psychoanalytic listening form the clinic to the development of an impressive psychoanalytic reading of literary works. An inspired, inspiring achievement."- Gregorio Kohon, Fellow, Training Analyst, The British Psychoanalytic Society

• Introduction. Maggie and Dorothea: Reparation and Working Through in George Eliot’s Novels. Non Vixit: A Ghost Story. Who’s Who? Notes on Pathological Identifications. Death by Daydreaming: Madame Bovary. Psychoanalysis and Literature. Imparadised in Hell: Idealisation, Erotisation and the Return of the Split-Off. ‘For Ever Wilt Thou Love, and She Be Fair!’: On Quixotism and the Golden Age of Pre-Genital Sexuality. Introduction to Iris Murdoch’s Henry and Cato. Certainty and Doubt: Transparency and Opacity of the Object. Florence and Sigmund’s Excellent Adventure: On Oedipus and Us. The Wound, The Bow and The Shadow of the Object: Notes on Freud’s ‘Mourning and Melancholia’. ‘Where the Lights and Shadows Fall’: On Not Being Able to Remember and Not Being Able to Forget. ‘Even Now, Now, Very Now...’ : On Envy and the Hatred of Love.The ‘Perpetual Orgy’: Hysterical Phantasies, Bisexuality and the Question of Bad Faith. Addiction to Near-Life: On Pathological Daydreaming and the Disturbing Ambiguity of Faking True-Love.

Ignês Sodré was born in Brazil, where she qualified as a clinical psychologist before coming to London in 1969 to train at the British Institute of Psychoanalysis. She is a Fellow and a Training and Supervising Analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society. She has taught extensively in London and abroad, and was the first visiting professorial Fellow in Psychoanalysis at Birkbeck College. She has published many papers on psychoanalysis and on literature; this is her second book.

"This is a great book by a superb observer of both psychoanalysis and literature. Ignes Sodre evidently loves the richness that psychoanalysis brings to our clinical understanding and she can apply the same approach to the authors and to the characters of literature. Inspired by her sensitive, intelligent and humorous accounts, we can find surprising new pleasures in much loved classics." - John Steiner, Training Analyst, British Psychoanalytical Society,Author of Psychic Retreats, Seeing and Being Seen"This is the work of a subtle clinician with a passion for literature. Ignes Sodre has a deep interest in the vicissitudes of human character and the varieties of story telling. She has memorable things to say about the pains and pleasures of psychic life, as glimpsed in the novel and encountered in the consulting room. In these pages, she deftly explores dreams and defences, disappointments and desires, in the company of George Eliot, Flaubert, Freud, Klein, and others. Imaginary Existences deserves a wide readership." – Professor Daniel Pick, Birkbeck College, University of London"In this book, Ignês Sodré has successfully brought together literature and psychoanalysis in a creative and insightful dialogue that enriches both. Sodré has extended her skilful psychoanalytic listening form the clinic to the development of an impressive psychoanalytic reading of literary works. An inspired, inspiring achievement."- Gregorio Kohon, Fellow, Training Analyst, The British Psychoanalytic Society

• Introduction. Maggie and Dorothea: Reparation and Working Through in George Eliot’s Novels. Non Vixit: A Ghost Story. Who’s Who? Notes on Pathological Identifications. Death by Daydreaming: Madame Bovary. Psychoanalysis and Literature. Imparadised in Hell: Idealisation, Erotisation and the Return of the Split-Off. ‘For Ever Wilt Thou Love, and She Be Fair!’: On Quixotism and the Golden Age of Pre-Genital Sexuality. Introduction to Iris Murdoch’s Henry and Cato. Certainty and Doubt: Transparency and Opacity of the Object. Florence and Sigmund’s Excellent Adventure: On Oedipus and Us. The Wound, The Bow and The Shadow of the Object: Notes on Freud’s ‘Mourning and Melancholia’. ‘Where the Lights and Shadows Fall’: On Not Being Able to Remember and Not Being Able to Forget. ‘Even Now, Now, Very Now...’ : On Envy and the Hatred of Love.The ‘Perpetual Orgy’: Hysterical Phantasies, Bisexuality and the Question of Bad Faith. Addiction to Near-Life: On Pathological Daydreaming and the Disturbing Ambiguity of Faking True-Love.