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Seeds of Illness, Seeds of Recovery

The Genesis of Suffering and the Role of Psychoanalysis

• By Antonino Ferro

• Price: $32.95 $29.66
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 144
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 23rd December 2004
• ISBN: 978-1-58391-829-6

About the Book

Illustrated with richly detailed clinical vignettes, Seeds of Illness, Seeds of Recovery offers a fascinating investigation into the origins, modes and treatment of psychical suffering.

Antonino Ferro provides a clear account of his conception of the way the mind works, his interpretation of the analytic understanding of psychopathology, his reconceptualization of the therapeutic process, and implications for analytic technique derived from his view of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis.

Drawing on and developing the ideas of Wilfred Bion, Ferro gives a unique perspective on subjects including:

• Container Inadequacy and Violent Emotions
• The waking dream and narrations
• 'Evidence': starting again from Bion
• Self-analysis and gradients of functioning in the analyst

This highly original approach to the problem of therapeutic factors in psychoanalysis will be of interest to all practising and training psychoanalysts and psychotherapists.

Reviews

What gives the book its special character is its skilful weaving together of a rigorous theoretical stance with the enjoyable, communicative skills displayed in his clinical work, and which one seems to witness in person, as though crouching in a corner of the analyst's mind. It is not easy to describe Ferro's writing skills, which are like those of a great musician who can allow himself the virtuosities while never for a moment forgetting, or lessening, the technical clarity of his performance. - Anna Ferruta, International Journal of Psychoanalysis

Table of Contents

Ogden, Foreword. Seeds of Illness and the Role of Defences. The Culture of Reverie and the Culture of Evacuation. Container Inadequacy and Violent Emotions. Nachträglichkeit and the Stork: The Analytic Field and Dream Thought Clinical Illustration. The Waking Dream and Narrations. 'Evidence': Starting Again from Bion. From the Tyranny of the Superego to the Democracy of Affects: The Transformational Passage Through the Analyst's Mind. Self-analysis and Gradients of Functioning in the Analyst. Pivotal-age Crises and Pivotal-event Crises. Psychoanalysis and Narration. Bibliography.