Peter Kutter – författare

It is well known that the cradle of psychoanalysis was in Vienna, the scene of Sigmund Freud''s activities at the beginning of the century. But how and when did psychoanalysis reach the other countries of Europe? What development did it undergo there? How did the different mentalities, political and cultural backgrounds as well as the personal particularities of its respective advocates affect psychoanalysis? What was its position in the past and what is its position today?

These and other questions on the varied development and the present situation of psychoanalysis in the countries of eastern and western Europe are investigated by renowned psychoanalysts drawing on the experience and knowledge acquired in their own work. The result is a new conpendium on psychoanalysis in Europe containing all up-to-date information. Informative and instructive, at times as exciting as a detective story, Psychoanalysis International will possibly be of interest even to non-analysts.

It is well known that the cradle of psychoanalysis was in Vienna, the scene of Sigmund Freud''s activities at the beginning of the century. But how and when did psychoanalysis reach the other countries of Europe? What development did it undergo there? How did the different mentalities, political and cultural backgrounds as well as the personal particularities of its respective advocates affect psychoanalysis? What was its position in the past and what is its position today?

These and other questions on the varied development and the present situation of psychoanalysis in the countries of eastern and western Europe are investigated by renowned psychoanalysts drawing on the experience and knowledge acquired in their own work. The result is a new conpendium on psychoanalysis in Europe containing all up-to-date information. Informative and instructive, at times as exciting as a detective story, Psychoanalysis International will possibly be of interest even to non-analysts.

First published in English in 1982 and based on more than five years of experience with therapy groups in the author’s own practice, this book aims to introduce the reader to psychoanalytic group therapy. Assuming little previous knowledge, it presents the subject in a progressive and illustrative way, and gives a central place to case material that was otherwise rarely published. Theory remains in the background and serves only to direct light on to problems which arise in practice, such as working through the early mother child relationship and the Oedipus complex in the group situation, the theory of the group process, and the various forms of transference, including the group conductor’s counter-transference.

The book’s special value consists in its practical non-dogmatic orientation, in its integration of a variety of conceptions about groups, in its vividly illustrative case presentations, and in the open discussion of the problem of counter-transference. Written in non-technical language, it gives a lively picture of how ‘the business of psychoanalytic group therapy’ is managed, and will be of value to group analysts in practice and in training, as well as those interested in a more general way in psychoanalytic group therapy and what it is all about.