Relational Perspectives
About the Book Series
Founding Editor:
Stephen Mitchell
Editor Emeritus:
Lewis Aron
Series Editors:
Adrienne Harris
Steven Kuchuck
Eyal Rozmarin
The Relational Perspectives Book Series (RPBS) publishes books that grow out of or contribute to the relational tradition in contemporary psychoanalysis. The term relational psychoanalysis was first used by Greenberg and Mitchell to bridge the traditions of interpersonal relations, as developed within interpersonal psychoanalysis and object relations, as developed within contemporary British theory. But, under the seminal work of the late Stephen A. Mitchell, the term relational psychoanalysis grew and began to accrue to itself many other influences and developments. Various tributaries—interpersonal psychoanalysis, object relations theory, self psychology, empirical infancy research, feminism, queer theory, sociocultural studies and elements of contemporary Freudian and Kleinian thought—flow into this tradition, which understands relational configurations between self and others, both real and fantasied, as the primary subject of psychoanalytic investigation.
We refer to the relational tradition, rather than to a relational school, to highlight that we are identifying a trend, a tendency within contemporary psychoanalysis, not a more formally organized or coherent school or system of beliefs. Our use of the term relational signifies a dimension of theory and practice that has become salient across the wide spectrum of contemporary psychoanalysis. Now under the editorial supervision of Adrienne Harris, Steven Kuchuck and Eyal Rozmarin, the Relational Perspectives Book Series originated in 1990 under the editorial eye of the late Stephen A. Mitchell. Mitchell was the most prolific and influential of the originators of the relational tradition. Committed to dialogue among psychoanalysts, he abhorred the authoritarianism that dictated adherence to a rigid set of beliefs or technical restrictions. He championed open discussion, comparative and integrative approaches, and promoted new voices across the generations. Mitchell was later joined by the late Lewis Aron, also a visionary and influential writer, teacher and leading thinker in relational psychoanalysis.
Included in the Relational Perspectives Book Series are authors and works that come from within the relational tradition, those that extend and develop that tradition, and works that critique relational approaches or compare and contrast them with alternative points of view. The series includes our most distinguished senior psychoanalysts, along with younger contributors who bring fresh vision. Our aim is to enable a deepening of relational thinking while reaching across disciplinary and social boundaries in order to foster an inclusive and international literature.
The Neuropsychodynamic Treatment of Self-Deficits: Searching for Complementarity
1st Edition
By Joseph Palombo
January 06, 2017
The Neuropsychodynamic Treatment of Self-Deficits examines how to work psychoanalytically with patients to address the problems that result from neuropsychological impairments, exploring the latest advances in understanding and treatment, while also addressing the concerns that clinicians may have ...
Body-Mind Dissociation in Psychoanalysis: Development after Bion
1st Edition
By Riccardo Lombardi
December 13, 2016
The conflict and dissociation between the Body and the Mind have determinant implications in the context of our current clinical practice, and are an important source of internal and relational disturbances. Body-Mind Dissociation in Psychoanalysis proposes the concept as a new hypothesis, ...
Trans-generational Trauma and the Other: Dialogues across history and difference
1st Edition
Edited
By Sue Grand, Jill Salberg
December 13, 2016
Often, our trans-generational legacies are stories of 'us' and 'them' that never reach their terminus. We carry fixed narratives, and the ghosts of our perpetrators and of our victims. We long to be subjects in our own history, but keep reconstituting the Other as an object in their own history. ...
Wounds of History: Repair and Resilience in the Trans-Generational Transmission of Trauma
1st Edition
Edited
By Jill Salberg, Sue Grand
December 13, 2016
Wounds of History takes a new view in psychoanalysis using a trans-generational and social/political/cultural model looking at trauma and its transmission. The view is radical in looking beyond maternal dyads and Oedipal triangles and in its portrayal of a multi-generational world that is no longer...
Psychoanalysis, Trauma, and Community: History and Contemporary Reappraisals
1st Edition
Edited
By Judith L. Alpert, Elizabeth R. Goren
November 15, 2016
Trauma is one of the hottest contemporary topics within psychoanalysis, whilst many psychoanalysts are increasingly interested in applying their skills outside the traditional setting of the consulting room, especially in response to disasters, wars and serious social issues. Psychoanalysis, Trauma...
Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Modern Jewish Philosophy: Two Languages of Love
1st Edition
By Michael Oppenheim
October 18, 2016
Relational psychoanalysis and modern Jewish philosophy have much to say about the dynamics of human relationships, but there has been no detailed, thorough, and constructive examination that brings together these two incisive discourses. Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Modern Jewish Philosophy: Two...
Talking about Evil: Psychoanalytic, Social, and Cultural Perspectives
1st Edition
Edited
By Rina Lazar
September 29, 2016
How can we talk about evil? How can we make sense of its presence all around us? How can we come to terms with the sad fact that our involvement in doing or enabling evil is an interminable aspect of our lives in the world? This book is an attempt to engage these questions in a new way. Written ...
Demons in the Consulting Room: Echoes of Genocide, Slavery and Extreme Trauma in Psychoanalytic Practice
1st Edition
Edited
By Adrienne Harris, Margery Kalb, Susan Klebanoff
August 18, 2016
Demons in the Consulting Room: Echoes of Genocide, Slavery and Extreme Trauma in Psychoanalytic Practice isthe second of two volumes addressing the overwhelming, often unmetabolizable feelings related to mourning, both on an individual and mass scale. Authors in this volume explore the potency of ...
The Ethical Turn: Otherness and Subjectivity in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
1st Edition
Edited
By David M. Goodman, Eric R. Severson
June 20, 2016
Levinas (1969) claims that "morality is not a branch of philosophy, but first philosophy" and if he is right about this, might ethics also serve as a first psychology? This possibility is explored by the authors in this volume who seek to bring the "ethical turn" into the world of psychoanalysis. ...
Ghosts in the Consulting Room: Echoes of Trauma in Psychoanalysis
1st Edition
Edited
By Adrienne Harris, Margery Kalb, Susan Klebanoff
May 02, 2016
Ghosts in the Consulting Room: Echoes of Trauma in Psychoanalysis is the first of two volumes that delves into the overwhelming, often unmetabolizable feelings related to mourning. The book uses clinical examples of people living in a state of liminality or ongoing melancholia. The authors reflect ...
The Dissociative Mind in Psychoanalysis: Understanding and Working With Trauma
1st Edition
Edited
By Elizabeth Howell, Sheldon Itzkowitz
February 17, 2016
The Dissociative Mind in Psychoanalysis: Understanding and Working With Trauma is an invaluable and cutting edge resource providing the current theory, practice, and research on trauma and dissociation within psychoanalysis. Elizabeth Howell and Sheldon Itzkowitz bring together experts in the field...
Immigration in Psychoanalysis: Locating Ourselves
1st Edition
Edited
By Julia Beltsiou
December 22, 2015
Immigration in Psychoanalysis: Locating Ourselves presents a unique approach to understanding the varied and multi-layered experience of immigration, exploring how social, cultural, political, and historical contexts shape the psychological experience of immigration, and with it the encounter ...