Slouching Towards Bethlehem
...and Further Psychoanalytic Explorations
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Karnac Books
Published:31st Oct '20
Should be back in stock very soon
In 1982, Nina Coltart gave a paper to the English-Speaking Conference of Psychoanalysts called “Slouching towards Bethlehem … or Thinking the Unthinkable in Psychoanalysis”, which created a stir and brought her to the attention of the psychoanalytic community. Ten years later, she produced her first book – this book – which contained her seminal paper, alongside so many others of note.
Full of eloquent, meaningful, and provocative clinical stories – including “The Treatment of a Transvestite”, “What Does It Mean: ‘Love Is Not Enough?’”, “The Analysis of an Elderly Patient”, and “The Silent Patient” – Nina Coltart exposes the full truth of the therapeutic process, where the analyst may occasionally stray from orthodox practice but how such lapses can sometimes provide unforeseen breakthroughs in treatment.
This volume introduced Coltart’s characteristic style of journeying through important issues in analytic practice. She elaborates on the use of intuition, the “special” attention required by an analyst, the value of silence, and of humour, and the importance of psychosomatic processes – the way the body speaks through psychosomatic symptoms. All vitally relevant today and positively groundbreaking at the time.
'Coltart wrote about her clinical work with honesty and brilliance. She wrote with a spoken flair of expression and kept technical language to a minimum. [...] Coltart tells us not to be afraid to make the psychoanalytic writing personal and readable. When one looks at the explosion of psychoanalytic journals and digital outlets, this writing style is on the ascent and owes much to Coltart. How such an independent psychoanalyst and creative writer arose from a rather stiff British Psychoanalytic Society is a mystery. But she might retort, that is why we love psychoanalysis because even if we are slouching towards our own personal Bethlehems we are moving closer to the heart of thinking the unthinkable.'
-- Spyros D. Orfanos, PhD, ABPP, The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2023, 83, (594–ISBN: 9781912691432
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 16mm
Weight: 347g
224 pages
Revised edition