Main description:

Vamik D. Volkan recounts the story of Judy, a woman attempting to solve her early life deprivations through non-chemical addiction. He provides an understanding of the psychology behind such an addiction and also illustrates pertinent therapeutic concepts and issues which arose in Judy's case. These include built-in transference, twinning, interpretation, dreams, hoarding, acting out, and therapeutic play. By paying attention to such things, it is possible to gain a greater understanding of the internal worlds of patients with preoedipal deprivations, conflicts, and fixations.

For this case, Dr Volkan undertook the role of supervisor to an analyst in training. The topics of the psychoanalytic supervisor-supervisee relationship and the supervisor's emotional reactions toward the patient, whom the supervisor never meets, are rather ignored in the psychoanalytic literature. This book gives an open and frank overview of the relationship, reporting not only what was said but also what lay behind the words.

Written in Dr Volkan's characteristically accessible style, this book will be enjoyed equally by those under supervision as those providing it, and provides an excellent overview of work with addiction.

Contents:

About the author

About this book

Chapter 1

A "hunter" of men

Chapter 2

Psychoanalytic perspectives on addictions

Chapter 3

Built-in transference

Chapter 4

Twinning

Chapter 5

Judy's analysis begins: Establishing a psychoanalytic foundation and linking interpretations

Chapter 6

The first dream and Judy's first year of analysis

Chapter 7

Animals, birds, fish, or insects "on the couch"

Chapter 8

Judy's dog

Chapter 9

Analysands' actions

Chapter 10

Therapeutic play

Chapter 11

Therapeutic neutrality and countertransference

Chapter 12

Reaching P and renovating a new house

Chapter 13

Finding R

Chapter 14

What happened to Judy after I stopped working with Dr. Rowan?

References

Index