This book explores developments in psychoanalytic field theory internationally, and their relevance for therapeutic theory and practice.
The book outlines the important routes of psychoanalytic field theory from Lewin to the Barangers to Bion and Ferro. The focus is on developments in field theory post-Bion ('Post-Bionian Field Theory') in Italy, with contributions from Brazil, Serbia and the U.S.A., in the form of chapters by Boffito, Civitarese, Fagundes, Levine, Mazzacane, Mojovic, Morgan-Jones and Snell, and Penna and Hopper.
Among the themes the book explores are the transformative potentials of play and the centrality of dreaming. The book is informed by a psychoanalysis not so much of decoding and archeological uncovering as one of being and becoming, within a shared 'field' which therapist and patient are partners in creating, exploring and developing. The chapter by Mojovíc and the commentary by Penna and Hopper extend the use of field theory by mapping it onto historical and geographical developments and applications of field theory across to group analysis, including developments in Argentina where the two are most closely linked.
This book will be beneficial for students and scholars of Psychology and Psychotherapy interested in field theory and contemporary psychoanalysis. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of European Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling.
About the Author: Robert Snell is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Roehampton University and a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist in private practice. He is the author of Cézanne and the Post-Bionian Field - An Exploration and a Meditation (2021)
Richard Morgan-Jones is an Organisational Consultant and a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist in private practice. He directs Work Force Health: Consulting and Research. He is the author of The Body of the Organisation and its Health (2010)
Del Loewenthal is Emeritus Professor of Psychotherapy and Counselling at the University of Roehampton; and, chair of the Southern Association for Psychotherapy and Counselling (SAFPAC), London, UK. He is a psychoanalytic and existential-analytic psychotherapist, and chartered psychologist, with a particular interest in phenomenology. www.delloewenthal.com; www.SAFPAC.co.uk
