Freud and the Changing World

‘Freud and the Changing World: Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Its Troubles is a much-needed overview of the psychoanalytic enterprise as we know it today. Stefano Bolognini and Luca Nicoli have written a brilliant synopsis of where we stand today and where we need to go if we wish to advance our field. I highly recommend this book for all psychoanalysts and those who care about our profession.'

-- Glen O. Gabbard, MD, training and supervising analyst, Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, Houston, Texas

‘In this slim volume we meet Stefano Bolognini as the ego ideal for contemporary psychoanalysts. He is wise in a humane and psychoanalytic sense and integrates what is meaningful from our psychoanalytic forefathers with recent perspectives. His understanding of psychoanalytic concepts is exemplary, while his elaborations of certain ideas help the clinician understand them with greater depth. He uses his wide-ranging knowledge (from Cicero to Sylvester the cat) as bridges to elaborate psychoanalytic ideas. It is a pleasure and enlightening to spend several hours with this sagacious analyst. Luca Nicoli serves as an inspiring interlocuter.’

-- Fred Busch, training and supervising analyst, Boston Psychoanalytic Institute; author of many papers and eight books

‘This book, cast in the form of an intimate dialogue, stands as a delightful reminder to psychoanalysts of all levels of experience and to the general public, that far from being in crisis, or even dead, the psychoanalysis of the twenty-first century still has much to offer as both a therapy and as a powerful perspective from which to explore the human condition. As noted in the introduction, it is the “red thread of a reflection on contemporaneity [that] guides the development of all the chapters of the book: both in referring to the characteristics and critical issues that define the global context in which we live, and in pointing out clearly what it can mean to ‘do psychoanalysis’ today”.’

-- Howard B. Levine, editor-in-chief, The Routledge Wilfred R. Bion Studies Book Series

‘Stefano Bolognini and Luca Nicoli offer an insightful and beautifully written view of the cutting edge of psychoanalytic theory and practice. Bolognini is one of the foremost analytic thinkers writing today and a gifted teacher; Nicoli is a keenly observant questioner. In language free of technical terms and free of cliché, Bolognini describes his way of thinking about essential analytic concepts such as the unconscious, the analytic field, transference, countertransference, gender, and the self. In lively dialogue with Nicoli, he describes his way of giving these concepts life in the analytic experience and in the contemporary analytic dialogue. This book is essential reading both for those early in their development as analytic practitioners and experienced therapists and psychoanalysts.’

-- Thomas Ogden, author of Coming to Life in the Consulting Room and Reclaiming Unlived