Main description:

The questions of what psychoanalysis is, and does, and who can and should practice it, remains key within the modern profession. Has the invaluable material packed into Freud's The Question of Lay Analysis (1926) been underestimated by contemporary psychoanalysis? This book explores how the issues raised in this paper can continue to impact contemporary Freudian theory and practice. The chapters examine why the arguably litigious nature of the paper might be contributing to its neglect and underestimation.

The editors of this book put forth a hypothesis: is there an underlying, still unrecognized, but heartrending factor underlying the century-old quarrel between "lay analysts" and what might be described as medically or psychiatrically trained analysts? They then brought together a selection of major contemporary psychoanalytic thinkers from around the world to attempt to bridge the seemingly unbridgeable gap between medical and non-medical analysis, using The Question of Lay Analysis as a central pivot. The work of the key figure, in social and historic terms, on this issue, Theodor Reik, is also duly honoured.

On Freud's "The Question of Lay Analysis" will be of great interest to all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.

Contents:

INTRODUCTION Paulo Cesar Sandler and Gley Pacheco Costa CHAPTER 1: THE QUESTION OF LAY ANALYSIS: THEN AND NOW Ron Spielman CHAPTER 2: WAYWARD ANALYSIS Ester Hadassa Sandler CHAPTER 3: WHO I THINK THE LAYMAN IS TO FREUD Jose Luiz Freda Petrucci CHAPTER 4: SOME NOTES ABOUT ALIKE APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOANALYSIS Irina Panteleeva CHAPTER 5: THEODOR REIK: THE ANALYST OF SILENCE AND SURPRISE Avedis Panajian CHAPTER 6: FROM WORD TO DEED: WHY PSYCHOANALYSIS NEEDS LAYPERSONS Bernd Nissin CHAPTER 7: THE ANALYST AND HIS ODYSSEY: LIKE ULYSSES, WE MUST NOT FORGET THE RETURN JOURNEY... Monica Horovitz CHAPTER 8: THE PROBLEM OF PLURALISM IN PSYCHOANALYSIS Charles Hanly CHAPTER 9: ABOUT "CAN LAY PEOPLE PRACTICE PSYCHOANALYSIS?" BY SIGMUND FREUD Abel Fainstein CHAPTER 10: PSYCHONALYSIS IS LAY IN ITS ESSENCE Claudia Aparecida Carneiro CHAPTER 11: FROM THE OBVIOUS TO THE UNBRIDGEABLE Avner Bergstein CHAPTER 12: ENDURING QUESTIONS Paulo Cesar Sandler and Gley Pacheco Costa