Becoming a Person Through Psychoanalysis »

Neville Symington is the author of established psychoanalytic classics including Emotion and Spirit; Narcissism: A New Theory; The Making of a Psychotherapist; The Spirit of Sanity; A Pattern of Madness and How to Choose a Psychotherapist. His previous volume A Pattern of Madness is a magnum opus which gives psychoanalysis a new theoretical structure. He works as a psychoanalyst in private practice in Australia.

Neville Symington traces the path along which he has travelled to become a person. This has run side by side with trying to become an analyst.

The author has made landmark discoveries while reading philosophy, sociology, history, and literature. Learning to paint, learning to fly a plane, and also the study of art and of aviation theory have opened up new vistas. This account is only a sketch--the completed picture will never materialize. It is therefore autobiographical but only in a partial sense. It is always emphasized that one’s own personal experience of being psychoanalyzed is by far the most significant part of a psychoanalyst’s education.

Acknowledgement     xi
About the Author     xiii
Introduction     xv
John Klauber: Psychoanalyst of the Person     1
John Klauber, Independent clinician     3
Emotional Freedom in the Analyst     23
Introduction     25
The patient makes the analyst     27
The analyst's act of freedom as agent of therapeutic change     51
Phantasy effects that which it represents     69
Maturity and interpretation as joint therapeutic agents     87
The Influence from Treating Psychopaths and the Mentally Handicapped     93
Introduction     95
The response aroused by the psychopath     99
The origins of rage and aggression     115
The psychotherapy of a mentally handicapped patient     123
Countertransference with mentally handicapped patients     147
Pilgrimage     155
Introduction     157
Independence of mind: attachment and the British Society     161
Migration from the Tavistock: impetus for mental change     171
The struggle to achieve independence of mind in the British Psychoanalytical Society     185
Papers on Narcissism     199
Introduction     201
Narcissism: a reconstructed theory     207
Narcissism as trauma preserved     215
Corruption of interpretation through narcissism     227
The core of narcissism     239
The Influence of Wilfred Bion     251
Introduction     253
The influence of Wilfred Bion on my clinical work     255
Bion and trauma transformed     269
Psychological Understanding of Psychoanalytic Concepts     281
Introduction     283
Envy: a psychological analysis     285
The structure of paranoia     297
A theory of communication for psychoanalysis     313
Epilogue     327
Introduction     329
Self-analysis in flight     331
The way forward     345
References     349
Index     355