Norbert Freedman - Böcker

In our current professional climate, with calls for 'evidenced-based treatment', and in light of the prestige accorded to this emblem, we can ask: for what purpose do we seek evidence? For our students? For the public at large? For an inner sense of feeling supported by science? Most disciplines are concerned with cumulative knowledge, aimed toward self-affirmation and self-definition, that is, establishing a sense of legitimacy. The three parts of this volume are directed toward the goal of affirming a public and private sense of the legitimacy of psychoanalysis, thereby shaping professional identity. In each contribution we adhere to the precepts of 'scientific inquiry', with a commitment to affirming or disconfirming clinical propositions, utilizing consensually agreed upon methods of observation, and arriving at inferences that are persuasive and have the potential to move the field forward. Beyond this, each part of this book describes distinct methodologies that generate evidence pertaining to public health policy, the persuasiveness and integrity of our psychoanalytic concepts, and phenomena encountered in daily clinical practice.

This work presents a vision of contemporary Freudian psychoanalysis. The contributors show how modern Freudian analysts have translated and retranslated the contributions of analysts on whose shoulders they stand, including Freud, Winnicott, Loewald, Ferenczi and others, and synthesized them into a new conception of Freudian theory and technique.The opening chapters provide a theoretical overview, demonstrating the evolution of Freudian theory and ways in which different theories can be integrated. The latter chapters, forming the bulk of the volume, translate that frame into clinical process.Analysts confronted with clinical dilemmas - for example, patients who cannot, for various reasons, use interpretations productively - find ways to address these dilemmas while deepening the analytic process. The reader will find that a new synthesis has taken place in which the relationship with the analyst is a crucial element in setting the stage for patients to take a closer look into their inner world.

The publication of this volune represents the first in a planned series of special publications on topics of major interest to workers in the fields of psychiatry and psychology. The series will be en­ titled The Downstate Series of Research in Psychiatry and Psychology and is the outcome of a series of discussions among several senior members of the Department of Psychiatry held about four years ago. Included in this group, were Drs. Benjamin Kissin, Henri Begleiter, Leonard Rosenblum, Herbert Pardes, Norbert Freedman, and myself. The talks were initiated by Dr. Pardes, now Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado, and the resultant decision was t6 hold three day symposia, hopefully of such excellence that the published papers of each symposium would represent a significant con­ tribution to some particular aspect of human psychology. This deci­ sion necessitated the choice of suitable topics and distinguished speakers who would present original work coordinated into an inte­ grated framework based upon a selected topic.

In our current professional climate, with calls for 'evidenced-based treatment', and in light of the prestige accorded to this emblem, we can ask: for what purpose do we seek evidence? For our students? For the public at large? For an inner sense of feeling supported by science? Most disciplines are concerned with cumulative knowledge, aimed toward self-affirmation and self-definition, that is, establishing a sense of legitimacy. The three parts of this volume are directed toward the goal of affirming a public and private sense of the legitimacy of psychoanalysis, thereby shaping professional identity. In each contribution we adhere to the precepts of 'scientific inquiry', with a commitment to affirming or disconfirming clinical propositions, utilizing consensually agreed upon methods of observation, and arriving at inferences that are persuasive and have the potential to move the field forward. Beyond this, each part of this book describes distinct methodologies that generate evidence pertaining to public health policy, the persuasiveness and integrity of our psychoanalytic concepts, and phenomena encountered in daily clinical practice.

This work presents a vision of contemporary Freudian psychoanalysis. The contributors show how modern Freudian analysts have translated and retranslated the contributions of analysts on whose shoulders they stand, including Freud, Winnicott, Loewald, Ferenczi and others, and synthesized them into a new conception of Freudian theory and technique.The opening chapters provide a theoretical overview, demonstrating the evolution of Freudian theory and ways in which different theories can be integrated. The latter chapters, forming the bulk of the volume, translate that frame into clinical process.Analysts confronted with clinical dilemmas - for example, patients who cannot, for various reasons, use interpretations productively - find ways to address these dilemmas while deepening the analytic process. The reader will find that a new synthesis has taken place in which the relationship with the analyst is a crucial element in setting the stage for patients to take a closer look into their inner world. This detailed examination of the clinical techniques that were implied but not developed by past analysts has led to a new Freudian synthesis, which is the unique contribution of this volume.