Women and Psychoanalysis:
The Collected Papers of Lucy Holmes (2020)
This remarkable collection charts the professional growth of one psychoanalyst from student to seasoned clinician to provide a guidebook for how psychoanalytic theory is conceptualized, created and tested in the analytic session. Specifically, the book traces the development of thinking on the place of women in psychoanalysis and how psychoanalysis has changed how it views and treats women.
Using the techniques of qualitative psychoanalytic research, Lucy Holmes presents new theories of female development grounded in drive theory and expands and enriches Freud’s phallocentric ideas about women. Validated by over 30 years of clinical experience with female patients, her work demonstrates how these theories affect women in analysis, in group and in their personal lives. Later papers focus on the process of psychoanalysis itself, using the laboratory of the analytic session to study how talking changes the neurological structure of the brain; to reflect on the concept of "cure" in psychoanalysis; and finally to tackle the tenacity of the repetition compulsion.
Exploring topics across women’s lives, such as childbirth, anger, identity, death, humour, leadership and madness, this unique collection of papers is ideal for practicing clinicians and theorists of psychoanalysis.
[More on Women and Psychoanalysis] [Amazon.com]
The Collected Papers of Lucy Holmes (2020)
This remarkable collection charts the professional growth of one psychoanalyst from student to seasoned clinician to provide a guidebook for how psychoanalytic theory is conceptualized, created and tested in the analytic session. Specifically, the book traces the development of thinking on the place of women in psychoanalysis and how psychoanalysis has changed how it views and treats women.
Using the techniques of qualitative psychoanalytic research, Lucy Holmes presents new theories of female development grounded in drive theory and expands and enriches Freud’s phallocentric ideas about women. Validated by over 30 years of clinical experience with female patients, her work demonstrates how these theories affect women in analysis, in group and in their personal lives. Later papers focus on the process of psychoanalysis itself, using the laboratory of the analytic session to study how talking changes the neurological structure of the brain; to reflect on the concept of "cure" in psychoanalysis; and finally to tackle the tenacity of the repetition compulsion.
Exploring topics across women’s lives, such as childbirth, anger, identity, death, humour, leadership and madness, this unique collection of papers is ideal for practicing clinicians and theorists of psychoanalysis.
[More on Women and Psychoanalysis] [Amazon.com]
Wrestling with Destiny:
The Promise of Psychoanalysis (2013)
Can psychoanalysis help people control their destinies? Using empirical evidence from neuroscience, Dr. Lucy Holmes makes a powerful argument that it can. This book considers the various ways in which destiny is linked to the repetition compulsion, and how free association in psychoanalysis can literally change the mind in ways that can help people reshape and take control of the future. Freud’s psychoanalysis is revealed here to be startlingly modern in its consonance with the latest findings in the study of the brain.
The compulsion to repeat can propel human beings toward destinies they would never have consciously chosen. The tenacity of this human tendency can inhibit our ability to meet life’s challenges. These challenges include our gender; an inability to master the complexities of loving and the strains of marriage; fears regarding the impertinence of being successful; the unconscious, reptilian pleasure we derive from going to war and raping the planet; and the inexorable decline and decay of our mortal flesh.
This book argues that the evolved talking that occurs in the psychoanalytic process can change the chemistry and structure of the brain in a way that helps the talker face these challenges and take charge of his or her own destiny. The author presents a cogent hypothesis spanning brain and mind to clarify how the basic rule of psychoanalysis - "just say everything" - can actually cure. This will appeal to mental health professionals such as psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, and students at the post-graduate level, as well as the general interested reader.
[More on Wrestling with Destiny] [Amazon.com]
The Promise of Psychoanalysis (2013)
Can psychoanalysis help people control their destinies? Using empirical evidence from neuroscience, Dr. Lucy Holmes makes a powerful argument that it can. This book considers the various ways in which destiny is linked to the repetition compulsion, and how free association in psychoanalysis can literally change the mind in ways that can help people reshape and take control of the future. Freud’s psychoanalysis is revealed here to be startlingly modern in its consonance with the latest findings in the study of the brain.
The compulsion to repeat can propel human beings toward destinies they would never have consciously chosen. The tenacity of this human tendency can inhibit our ability to meet life’s challenges. These challenges include our gender; an inability to master the complexities of loving and the strains of marriage; fears regarding the impertinence of being successful; the unconscious, reptilian pleasure we derive from going to war and raping the planet; and the inexorable decline and decay of our mortal flesh.
This book argues that the evolved talking that occurs in the psychoanalytic process can change the chemistry and structure of the brain in a way that helps the talker face these challenges and take charge of his or her own destiny. The author presents a cogent hypothesis spanning brain and mind to clarify how the basic rule of psychoanalysis - "just say everything" - can actually cure. This will appeal to mental health professionals such as psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, and students at the post-graduate level, as well as the general interested reader.
[More on Wrestling with Destiny] [Amazon.com]
The Internal Triangle:
New Theories of Female Development (2007)
Based on over twenty years of clinical work with women, both individually and in groups, The Internal Triangle represents the first attempt by a woman to use Freud's drive theory to explain female development since Helene Deutsch's two-volume Psychology of Women in 1945. It presents a completely new hypothesis about the way girls use the introjection of parental figures much in the way that boys utilize the penis: to separate from powerful early objects and to gain control and mastery. The author offers an innovative new theory about how the female personality and the qualities associated with femininity develop, utilizing a fantasy internal triangle of mother, father and self. It follows development through the major milestones of the female life cycle: preoedipal, adolescence, childbirth, and menopause, with vivid clinical material illustrating each of the author's ideas. The second half of the book focuses on clinical data and technique which will aid therapists in working with women individually and in groups.
[More on The Internal Triangle] [Amazon.com]
New Theories of Female Development (2007)
Based on over twenty years of clinical work with women, both individually and in groups, The Internal Triangle represents the first attempt by a woman to use Freud's drive theory to explain female development since Helene Deutsch's two-volume Psychology of Women in 1945. It presents a completely new hypothesis about the way girls use the introjection of parental figures much in the way that boys utilize the penis: to separate from powerful early objects and to gain control and mastery. The author offers an innovative new theory about how the female personality and the qualities associated with femininity develop, utilizing a fantasy internal triangle of mother, father and self. It follows development through the major milestones of the female life cycle: preoedipal, adolescence, childbirth, and menopause, with vivid clinical material illustrating each of the author's ideas. The second half of the book focuses on clinical data and technique which will aid therapists in working with women individually and in groups.
[More on The Internal Triangle] [Amazon.com]