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Sexual States of Mind

Author: Donald Meltzer

£23.39 – £27.99

A groundbreaking revision of the psychoanalytic theory of sexuality and its centrality to mental life, distinguishing between adult and infantile states of mind, and between infantile polymorphous and infantile perverse sexuality.

Author

Donald Meltzer
ISBN

9781912567454
Format

Paperback, e-Book, Print & e-Book
Page Extent

238
Publication Date

September 2018
Subject Areas

Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Theory
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Description

A groundbreaking revision of the psychoanalytic theory of sexuality and its centrality to mental life, distinguishing between adult and infantile states of mind, and between infantile polymorphous and infantile perverse sexuality. Meltzer traces the history of the psychoanalytical theory of psychosexual development and clinical sexual psychopathology from Freud through Abraham, Klein, and Bion. Next, he presents his revision of the theory of psychosexual development, with particular emphasis on the role of the super-ego-ideal, and then views several dimensions of differentiation. Finally, some exploration into the implications and applications of this revised theory to other areas, such as politics, education, abortion, art, and law.

Contents

Contents

Foreword
Meg Harris Williams

Introduction

PART I: HISTORY

SECTION A – THE THEORY OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
1. The psychoanalytical method and its theories
2. Childhood sexuality and the Oedipus complex
3. Developmental phases and organisational series
4. From pain-and-fear to love-and-pain

SECTION B – ON FREUD’S THEORY OF SEXUAL PATHOLOGY
5. The clinical phenomenology of narcissism
6. Clinical approach to the perversions

PART II: STRUCTURAL REVISION OF SEXUAL THEORY

SECTION A – PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
7. Identification and socialisation in adolescence
8. The emergence from adolescence
9. The introjective basis of polymorphous tendencies in adult sexuality
10. The genesis of the super-ego-ideal

SECTION B -CLINICAL SEXUAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
11. Adult polymorphous sexuality
12. Infantile polymorphous sexuality
13. Infantile perverse sexuality
14. Terror, persecution and dread
15. The origins of the fetishistic plaything of sexual perversion
16. On the distinction ambisexual: bisexual
17. Work, play and sublimation
18. Structural revision of the theory of perversions and addictions
19. Perversion of the transference

PART III: APPLICATIONS OF THEORY

20. Tyranny
21. ‘Permanent revolution’ of the generations
22. Pedagogic implications of structural psychosexual theory
23. The psychic reality of unborn children
24. The architectonics of pornography

References
Index

About the Author

About the Author

Donald Meltzer (1923–2004) was born in New York and studied medicine at Yale. After practising as a psychiatrist specialising in children and families, he moved to England to have analysis with Melanie Klein in the 1950s, and for some years was a training analyst with the British Society. He worked with both adults and children, and was innovative in the treatment of autistic children; in the treatment of children he worked closely with Esther Bick and Martha Harris whom he later married. He taught child psychiatry and psychoanalytic history at the Tavistock Clinic. He also took a special scholarly interest in art and aesthetics, based on a lifelong love of art. Meltzer taught widely and regularly in many countries, in Europe, Scandinavia, and North and South America, and his books have been published in many languages and continue to be increasingly influential in the teaching of psychoanalysis.
His first book, The Psychoanalytical Process, was published by Heinemann in 1967 and was received with some suspicion (like all his books) by the psychoanalytic establishment. Subsequent books were published by Clunie Press for the Roland Harris Educational Trust which he set up together with Martha Harris (now the Harris Meltzer Trust). The Psychoanalytical Process was followed by Sexual States of Mind in 1973, Explorations in Autism in 1975; The Kleinian Development in 1978 (his lectures on Freud, Klein and Bion given to students at the Tavistock); Dream Life in 1984; The Apprehension of Beauty in 1988 (with Meg Harris Williams); and The Claustrum in 1992.

3 reviews for Sexual States of Mind

  1. Virginia Ungar, psychoanalyst, Buenos Aires –

    ‘A ground-breaking psychoanalytic study on sexuality which maintains its originality today, forty-five years after its first publication. The book is a revision of psychoanalytic theory, starting with the work of Freud himself and including Melanie Klein’s contributions on the early Oedipus Complex and the Depressive Position. But more than that, it is a metapsychological study of sexuality which provides a different perspective from more well-known ones that relate simply to a descriptive or behavioural point of view. In differentiating adult sexuality from infantile sexuality and polymorphism and perversion, taking unconscious phantasy and the notion of the primal scene as the pivotal point, Meltzer proposes a unified theoretical and clinical model which has proved of particular help in the field of the psychopathology of addictions and perversions.’

  2. Hugo Marquez, Maria Elena Petrilli, Mauro Rossetti (Racker Group of Venice) –

    ‘”Sexual States of Mind” calls for a reassessment of our entire view of human nature. Meltzer sees sexuality not as an appetite but as an aspect of identity that structures the personality, manifest in childish, adult, or perverse states of mind.’

  3. Robert Oelsner, psychoanalyst, Seattle –

    ‘I know of no other work that has brought the relevance of sexuality (pivotal in Freud’s discoveries) to Kleinian analysis in such a clear an significant way, upholding its centrality in both normal development and in various forms of psychopathology. The distinction between adult and infantile sexual states of mind, and between infantile polymorphous and infantile perverse sexuality, makes a unique contribution to the clinical practice of any analyst.’

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