Top products from r/psychoanalysis

Until more recently, it wasn't common to find books/articles on "how to do" psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The knowledge of how to perform the therapy came from the therapist's training analysis, which, going back to Freud, used to be the only requirement for becoming a psychoanalyst (cf. The question of Lay Analysis by Freud). However, there are now some "psychodynamic" therapies that provide a "how to" look at therapy using psychoanalytic principles. Two that I am familiar with are Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy or ISTDP and Brief Dynamic Therapywhich is a little better in my opinion. Glen Gabbard, who I like a lot, has also written a text that lays out some of the basics of psychotherapy from an analytic perspective.

Speaking of Gabbard, I highly recommend his text Psychodynamic Psychiatry in Clinical Practice. It provides an overview of some of the major psychoanalytic theories (drive, ego, object, self). Unfortunately he doesn't cover Lacan, and briefly touches on intersubjectivity. Another book in this vein (without the diagnostic applications) is Freud and Beyond by Stephen Mitchell and Margaret Black. Not to diminish Dr. Black, but Stephen Mitchell is really great. I recommend anything by him, especially Hope and Dread in Psychoanalysis and Relationality.

Finally, any recommendation on contemporary American psychoanalytic writing would be incomplete without mentioning Thomas Ogden, especially The Matrix of the Mind and The Primitive Edge of Experience. His more recent works are great as well, but a little more nebulous and might be less applicable to beginning psychoanalytic work.

Oh, and I can't help but recommend this little book by Owen Renik Practical Psychoanalysis. Renik is great, and I really enjoy is work, especially his thinking on "getting real in psychoanalysis." Though he is far from the traditional views of analytic neutrality and abstinence.

I would definitely not start with Lacan if you’re a complete beginner. I would start with later Freud, work my way back to earlier Freud - so that you can see how his thinking changed -, definitely take a dip in the cool waters of object relations, definitely read up on the British Independent Group, and then start with Lacan. When starting Lacan, I’d strongly recommend this book , and then Écrits.

Be warned though. Lacan is not a simple read. Almost all of his publications were transcribed versions of his lectures, and translations from French. French has a vastly different structure from English, and Lacan spoke academic, psychoanalytic French.

I don’t say this to discourage you. Lacan is one of the single most interesting authors I’ve ever read. He’s why I want to become a psychoanalyst. But with that said, he is very challenging, and going in without preparation significantly undercuts your understanding and enjoyment of what you’re reading.

Sorry to hear that you are suffering and can't get proper help now. I also suffer from 'the tyranny of the should' since childhood, to a point, just like you described: "zero ability to get any pleasure from anything I should do". Getting into therapy helps, 3 time a week for me for the last 2.5 years.

But if you don't have access the therapy or analysis, here is my two-cents :

I have find reading these two book from Karen Horney help me to gain some perspective :

Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Towards Self-Realization ( this one also got an audio book version, if you like being read to.)

https://www.amazon.com/Neurosis-Human-Growth-Struggle-Self-Realization/dp/0393307751

Her other book Self-Analysis could also be helpful, if you want to attempt to do some work on one's own https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1095974M/Self-analysis

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There is a wealth of literature on grief therapy. Edgar N. Jackson (Understanding Grief : Its Roots, Dynamics, and Treatment, 1977, here) gives a thorough theoretical account of the problem. I haven't read it, but it seems good.

Donovan J. Ochs (Consolatory Rhetoric) takes a historical perspective. He says:

>Restricting this book to the classical practices of the Greeks and Romans allows the interested reader to gain an historic vantage point from which to begin appreciating, recognizing, and interacting with present day symbolic behaviors of consolation. Indeed, as later chapters will suggest, many of the symbolic languages used in Greco-Roman funeral rites continue to be used in Western societies...

Fred Pine's 1988 paper, "The Four Psychologies of Psychoanalysis and their Place in Clinical Work" is a great place to start learning about some basic schools of thought within psychoanalysis (check here for a summary).

Learning Psychotherapy by Hilde Bruch is a slim, but powerful text that is less jargon and more about the soul of listening and practicing as an analytic therapist.

Jonathan Shedler has a number of articles available for free, including one that traces the history of psychoanalysis (and how the term psychodynamic came to be).

Hello there. As an autistic person well versed in psychoanalysis, I am somewhat skeptical concerning its usefulness regarding autism. I won't discount the recommendations made by others here, but I would like to recommend a book that may be helpful, although it is not psychoanalytic.

https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Persons-Autism-Shannon-Roches/dp/0692010556

I disagree entirely with what another commenter said regarding ABA. From my perspective, it is a dubious practice to say the very least. Read this paper regarding the topic.

https://kar.kent.ac.uk/69268/

I recently read this book on working with eating disorders, but it could be helpful: http://www.amazon.com/Eating-Problems-Feminist-Psychoanalytic-Treatment/dp/0465088767

This white hotel?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-White-Hotel-D-Thomas/dp/0753809257/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372620142&sr=1-1

I read the Schopenhauer Cure by yalom but I wasn't exactly in love with it. White hotel sounds nice

I would recommend this book to explore the Oedipus complex more in other context.
Oedipus Ubiquitous: The Family Complex in World Folk Literature https://www.amazon.com/dp/0804725772/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_y86dAbWQYD3B4

I'd recommend Robert Stolorow

https://www.amazon.com/Trauma-Human-Existence-Autobiographical-Psychoanalytic/dp/0881634670

and Mark Epstein

https://www.amazon.com/Trauma-Everyday-Life-Mark-Epstein/dp/0143125745/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0143125745&pd_rd_r=KWK0KXCS10QF5CC83H74&pd_rd_w=bxpTj&pd_rd_wg=4Pf0Q&psc=1&refRID=KWK0KXCS10QF5CC83H74

All those other suggestions are fucking trash without the mention of Kernberg again!

Contemporary Controversies in Psychoanalytic Theory, Technique, and Their Applications https://www.amazon.com/dp/0300101392/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Euu0BbAVC38AZ

Psychoanalytic Education at the Crossroads: Reformation, change and the future of psychoanalytic training (The New Library of Psychoanalysis) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1138928704/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_dwu0BbYV7KHGH

Kernberg addresses the delineation or psychoanalytic institutions from traditional academia; and the DSM reductionism ramifications for classifying the psychopathology of “personality disorders”. Y’know the biological psychiatry medical model reductionism at Harvard/Medical School/MIT/MGH/BIDMC/McLean/Martinos Center/McGovern/Broad Insitute/et al.

Kernberg covers it all. The medical research community priortizes DBT (and somewhat MBT) because of its therapeutic standardization and study reclability. Judging by your inquiry-comment alone, I don’t think you’ve read all of Kernberg’s work.

...while not quite psychoanalytic criqtiue proper this philosophy of psychiatry/psychopathology book should aid to your answers on the reductive limitations of the DSM:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/classifying-psychopathology

And the complimentary book:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/metaphysics-psychopathology

https://www.amazon.com/Clinical-Introduction-Lacanian-Psychoanalysis-Technique/dp/0674135369


you should be able to find your way to this book through some means

Freud and Beyond: A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought Updated Edition
by Stephen A. Mitchell (Author), Margaret J. Black (Author)

https://smile.amazon.com/Freud-Beyond-History-Psychoanalytic-Thought/dp/0465098819/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1JSX83K8KA9PV&keywords=freud+and+beyond&qid=1564567352&s=gateway&sprefix=freud+and+bey%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-1

Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science, And Psychoanalysis by Richard Webster http://www.amazon.com/Why-Freud-Was-Wrong-Psychoanalysis/dp/0465091288

not books, but articles:

"From Lacan to Darwin" by Dylan Evans. https://beta3.finance.si//upload/ver/ver4480020c6d2b2/lacan.pdf

"The Shrink from Hell" by Raymond Tallis. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/the-shrink-from-hell/159376.article