Psychoanalysis at the Crossroads

Fred Busch has published numerous articles on psychoanalytic technique, and he has been invited to present papers and clinical workshops nationally and internationally. His last four books: Creating a Psychoanalytic Mind (2014); The Analyst’s Reveries: Explorations in Bion’s Enigmatic Concept (2019); Dear Candidate (2020); A Fresh Look at Psychoanalytic Technique (2021).

‘In this rich and vitally important edited book, Fred Busch, one of the most influential and creative writers in psychoanalysis today, has brought together an international group of widely respected analysts to address a broad landscape of contemporary psychoanalytic issues. This timely book is distinguished both by a level of clarity that reaches far beyond psychoanalytic tribalism and wise, discerning thought that will serve as a catalyst for further analytic progress.Michael J. Diamond, training and supervising analyst, Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies; author, Masculinity and Its Discontents and Ruptures in the American Psyche: Containing Destructive Populism in Perilous Times‘There are books that one has to pay attention to when reading them, and others that draw your attention. Psychoanalysis at the Crossroads belongs to this second class. In it, Fred Bush brings together prestigious colleagues from around the world who write about current issues that have to do with theoretical, clinical, and institutional concerns. There are multiple perspectives on each of the issues that makes it a book for real exchange. Psychoanalysis at the Crossroads is a symphonic work that shows the strength of our discipline and its continuous growth.’Claudia Lucia Borensztejn, training analyst at the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association (APA). Ex-president of APA 2016- 2020. Editor of Diccionario de Psicoanálisis Argentino. Latinoamérican. Board representative in IPA 2021-2023‘Eloquent and compelling. With this new collection of essays, written by psychoanalysts from diverse and contradictory perspectives, Fred Busch challenges us to meet at this contemporary crossroads… a current fork on the road…to Thebes? … and take it as an opportunity to rethink the psychoanalytic tapestry, not only by speaking in one’s own direction, but also by listening to others. Otherwise, we are ineluctably doomed.’Ellen Sparer, training analyst and director of Training of the Paris Institute of Psychoanalysis, S.P.P.

• Introduction Part One: What is Basic in Psychoanalytic Technique and Theory? 1. Waking a Sleeping Beauty 2. New Forms of Psychopathology in a Changing World: a Challenge for Psychoanalysis in the Twenty-First Century 3. A Turn Towards or a Turn Away? Why and How Resistance to Unbearable Ideas Evoked in the Analyst's Presence Must be the Cornerstone of Psychoanalytic Work 4. The Relational Unconscious: A Core Element of Intersubjectivity, Thirdness, and Clinical Process 5. How to Grow a Psychoanalytic Forest: A Challenge Going Forward 6. Affirming: "That's Not Psychoanalysis!": On the Value of the Politically Incorrect Act of Attempting to Define the Limits of our Field 7. Psychoanalysis and its Future: Destiny at the Crossroads 8. Technique at the Crossroads 9. Those Who Listen 10. Crossroads, Cloverleaf Overpass, or Skein: The Relationship Between Some Neurocognitive Research and the Development of the Unconscious Mind Part Two: Psychoanalysis and Social Issues 11. Difference: Our Legacy and Our Future 12. Conviction, Lies and Denialism: Psychoanalytic Reflections 13. First Do No Harm 14. On Whiteness, Racial Rhetoric, Identity Politics, and Critical Race Theory: A Critical Moment in American Psychoanalysis Part Three: The Role of Psychoanalytic Institutes 15. The Training and Supervising Analyst System in the United States, Current Issues 16. Why Does Psychoanalytic Education Cause Such Dissension? 17. Psychoanalytic Institutes and their Discontents 18. A Perspective from Buenos Aires Part Four: New Directions 19. The Self as Mental Agent: Explorations of a Long-Neglected Concept 20. Another Perspective on Dreams: The Dream as an Experience 21. Intersections Between the Feminine and the Infantile