Ana Teresa Vale – författare

Pregnancy, Assisted Reproduction, and Psychoanalysis reflects on contemporary views on pregnancy, while offering guidance on how to work with women and couples experiencing infertility as well as the unique issues raised by having a child through assisted reproduction technologies.Comprised of chapters written by eminent analysts working with infertile couples and women, and parents who have a child born from assisted reproduction, this book offers insightful ways to better understand the challenges these patients undertake and the various issues this might bring into the analytic room. The contributors examine the myriad psychic problems subjects are confronted with which could impact their ability to bond with children born through ART: the mourning processes infertility entails, the identification with the fertile parental couple, the unconscious representation of origin, the representation of the primal scene, and the process of symbolic affiliation. They consider the working-through these processes necessitate in order to enable filiation and healthy parenting, and give invaluable tools to the analyst to enable the promotion of psychological growth. Throughout, the chapters address the emotions that infertility summons in which both patient and analyst find a spectrum of unconscious phantasies and anxieties.This book is an essential read for psychoanalysts and other professionals working in the field of ART, as well as those interested in motherhood and its vicissitudes and intersection with psychoanalysis.

Pregnancy, Assisted Reproduction, and Psychoanalysis reflects on contemporary views on pregnancy, while offering guidance on how to work with women and couples experiencing infertility as well as the unique issues raised by having a child through assisted reproduction technologies.Comprised of chapters written by eminent analysts working with infertile couples and women, and parents who have a child born from assisted reproduction, this book offers insightful ways to better understand the challenges these patients undertake and the various issues this might bring into the analytic room. The contributors examine the myriad psychic problems subjects are confronted with which could impact their ability to bond with children born through ART: the mourning processes infertility entails, the identification with the fertile parental couple, the unconscious representation of origin, the representation of the primal scene, and the process of symbolic affiliation. They consider the working-through these processes necessitate in order to enable filiation and healthy parenting, and give invaluable tools to the analyst to enable the promotion of psychological growth. Throughout, the chapters address the emotions that infertility summons in which both patient and analyst find a spectrum of unconscious phantasies and anxieties.This book is an essential read for psychoanalysts and other professionals working in the field of ART, as well as those interested in motherhood and its vicissitudes and intersection with psychoanalysis.

Revisiting Psychic Bisexuality: The Feminine Within explores the complexities of psychosexual development from a psychoanalytic perspective, challenging traditional ideals and theories.Viewing the feminine and the masculine as an interdependent dyad in the human psyche, this book examines the construction of identity, as well as the sexual identification process. Considering inter- and intrapsychic dynamics, the chapters explore the relationship between analyst and analysand, looking at how various perspectives on the identification process of the masculine and feminine can challenge the analytic process. Focusing on classic and contemporary psychoanalytic theories, the chapters approach the phenomenon of psychic bisexuality as a mediating and mental function and work to find a model that fits with contemporary Psychoanalysis and life in the twenty-first century. Based on the universal idea that each element of the analytic pair carries inside his/her idiosyncratic experience of the feminine/masculine relationship, and that the analytic pair is engaged in an ongoing unconscious communication, the global cohort of contributors invite psychoanalysts working today to expand their viewpoints and move beyond the traditional psychoanalytic frame to better help their clients.This book is an invaluable resource for all mental health practitioners, as well as those in education and social care, looking to reflect on the vicissitudes of psychosexual development.