Fictional Clinical Narratives in Relational Psychoanalysis

Christina Moutsou is a social anthropologist and a psychoanalytic psychotherapist working in private practice in London, UK. She is co-editor of The Mother in Psychoanalysis and Beyond (with Rosalind Mayo, Routledge, 2016) and the author of a psychological novel Black Cake published in Greek (Archetypo, 2018). She is a visiting lecturer at Regent’s University.

"Christina Moutsou has written an extremely beautiful collection of tender and poignant stories – often quite chilling, and always quite moving – which reveal not only the challenges of human development but, also, the opportunity to explore those challenges within the confidential context of the psychoanalytical consulting room. A work of great creativity and enlightenment, composed in a compelling literary style, I recommend these unique stories most warmly."-Professor Brett Kahr, Senior Fellow, Tavistock Relationships, Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology, London, and Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Psychotherapy and Mental Health, Centre for Child Mental Health, London "Christna Moutsou calls upon her considerable experience and expertise as a psychotherapist to combine beautifully the art of relational psychoanalysis with that of story telling in her exciting new book. She demonstrates her sensitivity and sensibility to both in revealing lucid insights into the clinical encounter in an engaging and gripping way. This is a wonderful read not only for counsellors, therapists and psychoanalysts but also for anyone curious about the nature of human relationship. I commend it highly."-Martin Schmidt, MBPsS, Jungian Training Analyst, Honorary Secretary and Regional Organiser for Central Europe of The International Association of Analytical Psychology"We seem to live in a world that no longer preserves confidentiality. It’s as if all the secrets are out, everybody bears all. The person of the psychotherapist, however, seems to have stubbornly resisted today’s bear-all culture. The person of the psychotherapist may be one of the few personages that still evoke wonder and mystery. They either appear as mind-readers, criminally sane, or crazier than the rest of us. It’s hard to see them as just human. But of course we are human and we get into this "impossible profession" because of our own experiences and our own psychological and emotional characters. In a series of short stories, Christina Moutsou parts the veil to internal psychological experience in a new and intriguing way. We learn about the wounds that bring clients to therapy from their own mouths, before hearing how these clients affect their therapists. In Clinical Fictional Narratives in Relational Psychoanalysis we don’t just go into the patient’s world, we go deep into the therapist’s experience and learn just how human and wounded they are too. Dr. Moutsou’s work is humanising, normalising, and compassionate. A must-read for clinicians and non-clinicians alike, ultimately proclaiming that at the very core, we’re all human, because we’re all wounded somehow."-Aaron Balick, PhD, psychotherapist, supervisor and author of The Little Book of Calm: Tame your anxieties, face your fears, and live free"These are thoughtful, intelligent stories based mainly on exchanges in a therapeutic relationship. Christina writes eloquently and insightfully and I was gripped throughout."-Maggie Hamand, author of The Resurrection of the Body and Creative Writing For Dummies

• IntroductionPart 1: A moment in my teenage yearsOn the BeachThe divorceDisclosureThe ham and cheese sandwichAwakeningLondon in August or SerendipityPart 2: EllieMessAt arm’s lengthThe secret1+1=0Lost love and how to find it Flat LandscapeClinical PolygamyPart 3: JakeThe crumpled coat Life’s meaning Three in bedDrivenNo wordsAnother Chance The scarLove actuallyPart 4: Ellie and JakeOn losing and not being lost