Freud and Psychoanalysis

One hundred years after the birth of psychoanalysis, renowned scholar W. W. Meissner combines a comprehensive account of the evolution of Freud’s thought with a synthesis of contemporary psychoanalytic theory that includes the contributions of Margaret Mahler and Erik Erikson, as well as those of Heinz Hartmann, Heinz Kohut, Otto Kernberg, Ronald Fairbairn, Donald Winnicott, and Anna Freud. Dr. Meissner details the development of psychoanalytic theory, tracing its evolution from the earliest stages of Freud’s thinking to recent developments such as object relations theory and self-psychology. A chapter on psychoanalytic therapy completes this unique and essential volume. Freud and Psychoanalysis was originally published as part of a reference work addressed to psychiatrists. The University of Notre Dame Press edition of this classic study makes it available for the first time to a wider audience. The only contemporary work on Freud and the field he founded written by a psychoanalytic psychiatrist, this will appeal to everyone interested in Freud or intellectual history—therapists, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, medical students, collegiate, graduate, and divinity students and professors, and the general public.

“Meissner summarizes the findings and theories of psychoanalysis in a contemporary context while emphasizing significant historical roots. He does so in a comprehensive way, covering and evaluating many important trends and theoretical perspectives. His book is thus an excellent compendium of many classical and modern views.”

W. W. Meissner, S.J., M.D., is professor of psychoanalysis at Boston College, training and supervising analyst at Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, and former clinical professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is the author of several books, including The Therapeutic Alliance (1996), Treatment of Patients in the Borderline Spectrum (1998), and Psychoanalysis and Religious Experience (1984). Ernest Daniel Carrere has been a Trappist monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani for over thirty years. He holds a doctorate in psychological and religious anthropology from Emory University and a JD from Tulane University.