Jan Resnick has practised as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist for over 45 years. He trained in London where he was supervised by R. D. Laing, John Heaton, and Christopher Bollas. He moved from Europe to Australia in 1990 where he founded The Churchill Clinic that ran accredited professional trainings in Analytic Psychotherapy & Counselling. The founding president of the Psychotherapists & Counsellors Association of Western Australia, Jan received an Outstanding Achievement award for his contribution to the profession. He was an Editorial Advisory Board member of the national journal Psychotherapy in Australia, where he penned a regular column for over twenty years. An Advisory Board member of Blue Knot Foundation (formerly Adult Survivors of Child Abuse), Jan is also an accredited supervisor for the Royal Australian/New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in psychotherapy and supervises Developmental Paediatricians at the State Child Development Centre (West Perth).Jan Resnick has a PhD in Psychology (psychoanalysis) based on a psychotherapeutic understanding and treatment of psychosomatic disorders. Over his career, he founded and presided over four separate mental health charities. He has over 100 publishing credits including his first published book, How Two Love: Making Your Relationship Work and Last, based on his clinical work with couples.Jan lives with his wife Cath in Perth, Western Australia, and has six children and three grandchildren. His practice is Amygdala Consulting where he consults in psychotherapy and offers clinical supervision.Meaning-Fullness: Developmental Psychotherapy and the Pursuit of Mental Health is Jan’s current offering. While critical of standard mental health practices, he offers a different approach that is meaningful and effective. As a specialist publisher in psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and mental health Phoenix Publishing House is an obvious choice to produce, promote, and distribute this work.

‘This book is a much-needed antidote for the troubled times that psychotherapy finds itself in. Jan Resnick draws on John Heaton, R. D. Laing, D. W. Winnicott, and a host of others to argue (convincingly and cogently) that the blight that humanity suffers from is not that of mental illness, but meaninglessness. Resnick deftly pulls together theory, discussion, and case study, and shows us that, ultimately, it is the heart that is central to the project of psychotherapy.’

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction PART I: Meaning and Meaninglessness Chapter 1. The epidemic crisis of mental healthChapter 2. Current practices and corrupt scienceChapter 3. The existential vacuum: meaninglessness and filling the voidChapter 4. The origin of the capacity for meaning-makingChapter 5. Language and the bodyPART II: Play and Creativity in Child and Adult DevelopmentChapter 6. The value of illusionChapter 7. Play and workChapter 8. Creativity: living falsely or authenticallyChapter 9. The object of desire and how to destroy itPART III: Towards Meaning-Fullness Chapter 10. Meaning’s emergence in potential spaceChapter 11. Beyond Winnicott: I play therefore I amChapter 12. Play and symbolisation in the professional relationshipPART IV. Luke: Finding Meaning through Developmental PsychotherapyChapter 13. Working with Luke: a full-length case study Unscientific PostscriptReferencesAbout the authorIndex

Jan Resnick has practised as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist for over 45 years. He trained in London where he was supervised by R. D. Laing, John Heaton, and Christopher Bollas. He moved from Europe to Australia in 1990 where he founded The Churchill Clinic that ran accredited professional trainings in Analytic Psychotherapy & Counselling. The founding president of the Psychotherapists & Counsellors Association of Western Australia, Jan received an Outstanding Achievement award for his contribution to the profession. He was an Editorial Advisory Board member of the national journal Psychotherapy in Australia, where he penned a regular column for over twenty years. An Advisory Board member of Blue Knot Foundation (formerly Adult Survivors of Child Abuse), Jan is also an accredited supervisor for the Royal Australian/New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in psychotherapy and supervises Developmental Paediatricians at the State Child Development Centre (West Perth).Jan Resnick has a PhD in Psychology (psychoanalysis) based on a psychotherapeutic understanding and treatment of psychosomatic disorders. Over his career, he founded and presided over four separate mental health charities. He has over 100 publishing credits including his first published book, How Two Love: Making Your Relationship Work and Last, based on his clinical work with couples.Jan lives with his wife Cath in Perth, Western Australia, and has six children and three grandchildren. His practice is Amygdala Consulting where he consults in psychotherapy and offers clinical supervision.Meaning-Fullness: Developmental Psychotherapy and the Pursuit of Mental Health is Jan’s current offering. While critical of standard mental health practices, he offers a different approach that is meaningful and effective. As a specialist publisher in psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and mental health Phoenix Publishing House is an obvious choice to produce, promote, and distribute this work.

‘This book is a much-needed antidote for the troubled times that psychotherapy finds itself in. Jan Resnick draws on John Heaton, R. D. Laing, D. W. Winnicott, and a host of others to argue (convincingly and cogently) that the blight that humanity suffers from is not that of mental illness, but meaninglessness. Resnick deftly pulls together theory, discussion, and case study, and shows us that, ultimately, it is the heart that is central to the project of psychotherapy.’

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction PART I: Meaning and Meaninglessness Chapter 1. The epidemic crisis of mental healthChapter 2. Current practices and corrupt scienceChapter 3. The existential vacuum: meaninglessness and filling the voidChapter 4. The origin of the capacity for meaning-makingChapter 5. Language and the bodyPART II: Play and Creativity in Child and Adult DevelopmentChapter 6. The value of illusionChapter 7. Play and workChapter 8. Creativity: living falsely or authenticallyChapter 9. The object of desire and how to destroy itPART III: Towards Meaning-Fullness Chapter 10. Meaning’s emergence in potential spaceChapter 11. Beyond Winnicott: I play therefore I amChapter 12. Play and symbolisation in the professional relationshipPART IV. Luke: Finding Meaning through Developmental PsychotherapyChapter 13. Working with Luke: a full-length case study Unscientific PostscriptReferencesAbout the authorIndex

Jan Resnick has practised as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist for over 45 years. He trained in London where he was supervised by R. D. Laing, John Heaton, and Christopher Bollas. He moved from Europe to Australia in 1990 where he founded The Churchill Clinic that ran accredited professional trainings in Analytic Psychotherapy & Counselling. The founding president of the Psychotherapists & Counsellors Association of Western Australia, Jan received an Outstanding Achievement award for his contribution to the profession. He was an Editorial Advisory Board member of the national journal Psychotherapy in Australia, where he penned a regular column for over twenty years. An Advisory Board member of Blue Knot Foundation (formerly Adult Survivors of Child Abuse), Jan is also an accredited supervisor for the Royal Australian/New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in psychotherapy and supervises Developmental Paediatricians at the State Child Development Centre (West Perth).Jan Resnick has a PhD in Psychology (psychoanalysis) based on a psychotherapeutic understanding and treatment of psychosomatic disorders. Over his career, he founded and presided over four separate mental health charities. He has over 100 publishing credits including his first published book, How Two Love: Making Your Relationship Work and Last, based on his clinical work with couples.Jan lives with his wife Cath in Perth, Western Australia, and has six children and three grandchildren. His practice is Amygdala Consulting where he consults in psychotherapy and offers clinical supervision.Meaning-Fullness: Developmental Psychotherapy and the Pursuit of Mental Health is Jan’s current offering. While critical of standard mental health practices, he offers a different approach that is meaningful and effective. As a specialist publisher in psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and mental health Phoenix Publishing House is an obvious choice to produce, promote, and distribute this work.

‘This book is a much-needed antidote for the troubled times that psychotherapy finds itself in. Jan Resnick draws on John Heaton, R. D. Laing, D. W. Winnicott, and a host of others to argue (convincingly and cogently) that the blight that humanity suffers from is not that of mental illness, but meaninglessness. Resnick deftly pulls together theory, discussion, and case study, and shows us that, ultimately, it is the heart that is central to the project of psychotherapy.’

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction PART I: Meaning and Meaninglessness Chapter 1. The epidemic crisis of mental healthChapter 2. Current practices and corrupt scienceChapter 3. The existential vacuum: meaninglessness and filling the voidChapter 4. The origin of the capacity for meaning-makingChapter 5. Language and the bodyPART II: Play and Creativity in Child and Adult DevelopmentChapter 6. The value of illusionChapter 7. Play and workChapter 8. Creativity: living falsely or authenticallyChapter 9. The object of desire and how to destroy itPART III: Towards Meaning-Fullness Chapter 10. Meaning’s emergence in potential spaceChapter 11. Beyond Winnicott: I play therefore I amChapter 12. Play and symbolisation in the professional relationshipPART IV. Luke: Finding Meaning through Developmental PsychotherapyChapter 13. Working with Luke: a full-length case study Unscientific PostscriptReferencesAbout the authorIndex