Aiming to theoretically re-establish clinical practice, Green revisits the very foundations of the analytic method. He traces a new map of the psychoanalytic field, now redefined by the predominance of non-neurotic structures, and follows the Freudian technical model centered on the notion of transference, and the post-Freudian model emphasizing countertransference (or the “analyst’s desire”).
From this innovative perspective, Green distinguishes the myths from the realities of the analytic process, questions the extension of the concept of countertransference, reevaluates the technical articulations of interpretation and construction, and reformulates the relationships between repetition, memory, and elaboration. This volume closes with three essays on functioning at the limits of analyzability, including the remarkable theoretical-clinical study: “Sexuality in non-neurotic structures”.
The essays in this book were selected by Green in dialogue with Fernando Urribarri to make them accessible to a wider readership. They reflect the post-1974 elaborations and conclusions drawn from Green’s extensive clinical experience treating and supervising analytic work. They are a testament to Green’s determination to extend Freudian theory to adapt to contemporary clinical challenges, while consistently remaining within the Freudian paradigm.
This is the perfect book to launch the pivotal French Psychoanalysis: Contemporary Voices, Classical Texts series. Filled with fresh ideas, it is essential reading for all psychoanalytic clinicians, academics, and trainees.
Professor Rosine Perelberg, British Psychoanalytical Society; Sigourney Award Winner 2023 for outstanding contribution to psychoanalysis –
‘This book offers a precious opportunity to engage with André Green’s revolutionary approach on psychoanalytic theoretical and clinical practice. The texts were selected by André Green himself in the year prior to his death and were revised by his wife Litza Guttieres-Green. The book gives access to some of Green’s oral presentations to congresses and to many of the concepts that he introduced, such as the internal framing structure of the analyst, the dichotomy between the dream and the act, and the distinction between passivity and passivation. It is a privilege to be able to engage once again with Green’s world, now published in English with a scholarly introduction by Howard B. Levine.’
Christine Anzieu-Premmereur, MD, PhD, Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry, Columbia University; member, Société Psychanalytique de Paris and New York Psychoanalytic Institute; co-founder, Pulsion Institute –
‘André Green, one of the most influential analysts of our times, is well-known for expanding the field of psychoanalytic practice to the work with non-neurotic structures in a contemporary clinical model. This translation of his fundamental late developments concerning work with difficult patients is brilliant, giving us access to his thinking about the expansion of the Freudian paradigm and a renewal of psychoanalytic practice and technique. His expansion of the analytic frame by his introduction of the concept of “the internal framing structure of the analyst,” his extension of the notion of countertransference, and his offerings on the analytic and technical developments needed when working at the limits of analysability will prove useful for analysts and therapists at all levels who are engaged in the psychoanalytic treatment of difficult patients.’