Putting Theory to Work

Jorge Canestri, M.D, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst. Training and supervising analyst for the Italian Psychoanalytical Association and for the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association. Mary S. Sigourney Award recipient 2004. Professor of Psychology of Health at the Roma 3 University. Editor of the Educational Section of the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. President of the Italian Psychoanalytical Association. Has published numerous psychoanalytical papers in books and reviews including 'Language, Symbolisation and Psychosis'.

'There is no more important matter for a practising psychoanalyst to consider than his or her theory. We enact our theories whether we like it, or know it, or not. And there are few psychoanalysts outside this group assembled by Jorge Canestri more suitable for provoking our thoughts as to what we enact. This is a vital publication from one of the most important research groups in the field.'- David Tuckett, Training Analyst and Former Editor of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, President European Psychoanalytic Federation (EPF), and Chair of the EPF Working Party on Comparative Clinical methods 'The Working Party of Theoretical Issues (WPTI) of the European Psychoanalytic Federation has discovered the analysts mind and his or her way of putting feeling and thinking into action as Ramzy and Meyer long ago had asked for. It will help to move into new clinical grounds; it may help to depart from overly critical discussions that are not really fertile and may give clinical and theoretical curiosity a timely impetus. This text should be used in all training institutions to refocus our effort on how the minds of analysts are working.'- Prof. Dr Horst Kachele, International Psychoanalytic University, Berlin

• Series Editors' Preface -- Introduction -- The use of public and of private implicit theories in the clinical situation -- Do analysts do what they say they do? -- Theoretical and clinical reflections on public and private theories -- The case of Albert -- Unconscious theories in the analyst’s mind at work: searching for them in clinical material -- Supervision in psychoanalytical training: the analysis and the use of implicit theories in psychoanalytical practice -- Theories as objects: a psychoanalytic inquiry into minds and theories -- Conclusions -- Appendix