Sverre Varvin – författare

Psychoanalysis in Social and Cultural Settings examines the theory and practice of psychoanalysis with patients who have experienced deeply traumatic experiences through war, forced migrations, atrocities and other social and cultural dislocations.

The book is divided into three main sections covering terrorism, refugees and traumatisation, with another two focusing specifically on transcultural issues regarding establishing psychoanalysis in China and on research related to themes outlined in the book. Major key psychoanalytic themes run through the work, focusing on identity and the self, fundamentalism, resilience, dehumanisation, cultural differences and enactment.

Offering key theory and clinical guidance for working with highly traumatised patients, this book will be essential for all psychoanalysts and therapists working with victims of terrorism, war and other deeply traumatic life events.

Psychoanalysis in Social and Cultural Settings examines the theory and practice of psychoanalysis with patients who have experienced deeply traumatic experiences through war, forced migrations, atrocities and other social and cultural dislocations.

The book is divided into three main sections covering terrorism, refugees and traumatisation, with another two focusing specifically on transcultural issues regarding establishing psychoanalysis in China and on research related to themes outlined in the book. Major key psychoanalytic themes run through the work, focusing on identity and the self, fundamentalism, resilience, dehumanisation, cultural differences and enactment.

Offering key theory and clinical guidance for working with highly traumatised patients, this book will be essential for all psychoanalysts and therapists working with victims of terrorism, war and other deeply traumatic life events.

The introduction of psychoanalysis to China over the last twenty years brings a clash between Eastern and Western philosophical backgrounds. Chinese patients, therapists, and trainees struggle with assumptions inherent in an analytic attitude steeped in Western ideas of individualism that are often at odds with a Chinese Confucian ethic of respect for the family and the work group. The situation is further complicated by the rapid evolution of Chinese culture itself, emerging from years of trauma, new economics, and the one-child policy of the last generation that has introduced a new Chinese brand of individualism and new family structure that are not equivalent to those of the West. This volume breaks new ground in exploring these issues and challenges to the introduction of analytic therapies into China, not only from the viewpoint of Western teachers, but also from Chinese teachers, clinicians, anthropologists, and observers.