Overview

A fascinating introductory volume, Existential Psychoanalysis: A Contemporary Introduction integrates existential philosophy with psychoanalysis, drawing on key theorists from both areas and expertly guiding the reader on how to incorporate these two disciplines, which may appear disparate on the surface, into their clinical and theoretical work. This unique and accessible book sees M. Guy Thompson explore key concepts, such as experience, authenticity, freedom, psychic change, agency, and the pervasive role of suffering in our lives. Throughout, he draws on a wide range of thinkers from both fields, including Sartre, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Freud, Winnicott, Bion, Laing, and Lacan. Exquisitely lucid and engaging, Thompson deftly brings the reader into thoughtful and enlightening territory typically inaccessible to the general reader. Although existential philosophy and psychoanalysis are often thought of as incompatible fields, Thompson shows how they share far more in common than is usually supposed. This volume will help clinicians, scholars, and students of all persuasions learn how integrating the two disciplines introduces a more personal and revolutionary understanding of what psychoanalysis can be in the twenty-first century. This compelling assimilation of continental philosophy and psychoanalysis will be of interest to psychoanalytic practitioners and psychotherapists, as well as philosophers, social scientists and any student of the human condition.

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9781032977843

Table of Contents

Reviews

‘This book is a much-needed and unique introduction to Existential Psychoanalysis. M. Guy Thompson’s numerous, brilliant and innovative works have made significant contributions to the fields of both existentialism and psychoanalysis, but this volume is the first to integrate them. He brings his deeply personal biography and theoretical insights to bear in this uncommonly accessible work with lucid and exceptionally clear writing devoid of jargon. Thompson’s sources include Freud but also Winnicott, Bion, Lacan, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre, but especially Laing, with whom he studied and worked intimately for many years in London. Thompson ‘s conception of existential psychoanalysis is both a unique and groundbreaking contribution to the field that brings this school into the vanguard of the twenty-first century. In our present-day technologically-minded world Thompson’s plea for a return of personhood, freedom, choice, genuine relationship and authenticity to the field of psychoanalysis makes this book essential reading for analysts, therapists, patients, philosophers, and anyone interested in the human condition.’ Emeritus Professor Douglas Kirsner, PhD, author of The Schizoid World of Jean-Paul Sartre and R. D. Laing ‘M. Guy Thompson is a true pioneer in the field of existential psychoanalysis. In this brilliant introduction to this school, he describes in crystal clear prose the philosophical and theoretical roots of this singular approach, as well as its underpinnings in practice. In total this volume will open readers to a world of psychoanalysis they rarely access but that is likely to be critical to their growth and enrichment as humane healers.’ Kirk J. Schneider, author of Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy and Life-Enhancing Anxiety

Author Information

M. Guy Thompson is the founder and Director of the New School for Existential Psychoanalysis, and a Personal and Supervising Analyst and Faculty Member at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, San Francisco, USA. He is the author of Essays in Existential Psychoanalysis: On the Primacy of Authenticity (2023) and The Death of Desire: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness (second edition, 2016), and the editor of The Legacy of R. D. Laing: An Appraisal of His Contemporary Relevance (2015).

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