Stories from the Bog

Patrick Kavanaugh, Ph.D. is the founding president of the Academy for the Study of the Psychoanalytic Arts, and is a former president of the International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education and the Michigan Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology. He is a former director of clinical training at the University of Detroit-Mercy. Currently, he is in private practice in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

"Those familiar with Kavanaugh’s unique voice will enjoy this compilation of his clinical and theoretical works, in which a master storyteller and master clinician offers a unique view of psychoanalytic work as an evolving process through which meanings can be made and manifested. Those not familiar with his work are in for a treat. In an era in which scientism and constricting standards threaten to squeeze the life out of psychoanalytic theory and practice, Kavanaugh is a refreshing voice, reminding us of the richness and importance of this work and of the being-in-it-together that is the sine qua non of psychoanalysis." - in: DIVISION/Review - a publication of Division 39 (the Division of Psychoanalysis of the APA) (December 2012)"… by all means pick up this book and consider recommending it to colleagues. I did." - in: PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 57, Release 46, Article 7(November 21, 2012)"Patrick Kavanaugh shares with us his rich and original vision of psychoanalysis as gift, a science of subjectivity, and an art form, providing us with a profound philosophical and mystical foundation, guiding us to an understanding of mental and emotional states found in what Kavanaugh understands as the truth of the “bog” … The bog is Kavanaugh’s metaphor – and reality – describing states of being that wander between, and deep into, madness and sanity... his mesmerizing, compelling, engaging spinning of tales rich in a depth understanding of unconscious process and the interaction between analyst and analysand … Read and be inspired." - in: Other/Wise, Vol. 9 (Winter 2012)"With a wry humour and piercing intellect, Dr. Kavanaugh’s Stories from the Bog…, evokes the Celtic legacy of story-telling in psychoanalysis." – David L. Downing"A scintillating book that dances on edges of the human mind. At once, challenging, reflective and enriched by details of therapeutic work." – Michael Eigen, author of Contact with the Depths"Dr. Kavanaugh captures the essence of the psychoanalytic enterprise ... this book is a work of psychoanalytic art by one of its most creative practitioners."

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionStories From the Bog: On the Underworld, the Underconsciousness, and the UndertakingThe Dead Poets Society: Ventures into a Radioactive Psychoanalytic SpaceFrankenstein’s Genie-ology: The Magical Visionary Experience and the Associative MethodAn Ethic of Free Association: Questioning a Uniform and Coercive Code of EthicsWang Fo and an Ethic of Free Association: Poetic Imagination, Mythical Stories, and Moral PhilosophyThe Dramatic Meaning of Madness in Psycho(analy)sis: The Ear-Rationality of Treating Illusion as RealityEscaping the Phantom’s Ghostly Grasp: On Psychoanalysis as a Performance Art in the Spirit WorldA Fractured Fairy Tale: The Story of Our Professional Lives in the Kingdom of PositivismDeveloping Competency in the Destruction of Psychoanalysis: An Other ApproachHow Will Bodies of Knowledge(s) Speak the Psychoanalytic Practitioner of the 21st Century? On Madness, Shamans and the Psychoanalytic Arts