Memoir of Psychoanalysis and Inheritance

• Utgivningsdatum: 2027-03-31
• Mått: 156 x 234 x undefined mm
• Format: Inbunden
• Språk: Engelska
• Antal sidor: 192
• Förlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd
• ISBN: 9781041395331

• Kulturvetenskap
• Freudiansk psykologi
• Sanna berättelser

Ilonka Venier Alexander holds an MSW from the University of Southern California and is an independent scholar and writer whose work explores psychoanalysis, cultural history, and family inheritance. A granddaughter of psychoanalyst Franz Alexander, she has drawn upon family archives and decades of research to examine exile, identity, trauma, and the transmission of ideas across generations. She is a Founding Scholar of the British Psychoanalytic Council and the author of four books: The Life and Times of Franz Alexander, Love and Survival in Budapest, Growing Up Alexander, and The Lost Legacy of Franz Alexander. She lives in Nova Scotia.

“The balance between the public and private life of the individual is a frontier of one of the most personal and relatively mysterious of all processes. Likewise, the subjective view of one’s own inner world with the thoughts and internal language versus being seen or even treated as an object reacted to by significant others is painful to both witness and experience. This is even more so when thinking about psychoanalysis and the real family relationships that populate these attachment experiences. Ilonka’s book captures for one of the most notable psychoanalysts in history the real personal reflections of the communication space around the analyst and the family structures that enliven the space outside the consulting room.”Dr Richard Sherry, Consultant Chartered Clinical Neuropsychologist and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist“A deeply felt reflection on the psychology of identity, Ilonka Vernier Alexander’s The Search for Home is a moving account of the process of self-discovery. The author situates her journey within the context of family history and especially her relationship with her grandfather, the Hungarian-American psychoanalyst Franz Alexander, but this memoir examines significant personal territory not covered in her previous books-- The Life and Times of Franz Alexander: From Budapest To California (2015), Growing Up Alexander: My Life with a Psychoanalytic Pioneer (2017) and The Lost Legacy of Franz Alexander: A Psychoanalytic Pioneer Revisited (2025). Moving beyond childhood memories and the substantial research these volumes required, The Search for Home offers far more than an account of ‘what happened next’. The author recounts her travels from California to Boston to Nova Scotia, her failed and successful relationships, and her career as a clinical social worker who discovered her professional purpose during the AIDS epidemic. Informed throughout by her work as psychotherapist, this frank and honest memoir allows Alexander a special lens as well as the freedom to contextualise her present place in the world, to come to terms with her past, and-- in her words-- to understand what home really is.”Caroline Zilboorg, Life Member, Clare Hall, Cambridge University & Scholar of the British Psychoanalytic Council“The Search for Home is a profoundly moving and intellectually rich memoir that weaves together psychoanalysis, family history, exile, memory, and the enduring human longing for belonging. With exceptional honesty and sensitivity, Ilonka Venier Alexander traces the visible and invisible inheritances passed from one generation to the next, illuminating how the histories we carry can shape our identities long before we are able to comprehend them.The book’s particular strength lies in the author’s ability to move beyond genealogy and uncover the emotional significance embedded in names, places, relationships, objects, and memories. Her journey through the worlds of Freud, Ferenczi, and Franz Alexander becomes both a compelling account of psychoanalytic history and a deeply personal quest for understanding and meaning.Elegantly written and profoundly thoughtful, The Search for Home reminds us that home is not merely the place from which we come, but something we patiently and courageously create from all that we have inherited.”Francisco Balbuena Rivera, PhD; Spanish Psychologist and Philosopher; University of Huelva, Spain

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