A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis [antikvár]

IntroductionPsychoanalysis remains a sufBciently controversial subject for it to be perhaps necessary to state explicitly that this book is not a dictionary of criticisms of psychoanalysis but a critical dictionary of psychoanalysis. Its aim is not to provide ammunition for those who, for whatever reason, wish to demolish psychoanalysis, but to help those who need or wish to inform themselves about it to do so intelligently and critically. To this end its entries consist not merely of formal dictionary definitions of technical terms used in the analytical literature, but also give some account of their origin, of their connexion with other terms and concepts used in analytical theory, and of the controversies relating to them that exist among analysts themselves. Extensive use has been made of cross-references which will, it is hoped, enable readers who look up one entry to discover the position it occupies within the total frame of reference of analytical theory.Since the author is a practising psychoanalyst who was trained in the Freudian school, and since, furthermore, this dictionary has grown out of a notebook in which he recorded his puzzlement and doubts about certain aspects of Freudian theory, the term 'psychoanalysis' refers throughout, imless explicitly qualified, to Freudian psychoanalysis. This is not parochialism on the author's part but conformity to the usage generally current among those professionally involved in the field. For them the term 'psychoanalysis' refers specifically to the psychological theories and forms of treatment which derive directly from Freud and which are taught to students who seek training at any of the institutes affiliated to the International Psycho-Analytical Association. Other schools of thought, such as the Jungian, Adlerian, and existential, all of which are psychoanalytical in the popular sense, have their own distinguishing names and labels, the purpose of which is to ensure that their members are not mistaken for Freudians, Jungian analysts call themselves 'analytical psychologists' and their theory 'analytical psychology', Adlerians are 'individual psychologists', while