Edgar A. Levenson - The Purloined Self: Interpersonal Perspectives in Psychoanalysis

The Purloined Self: Interpersonal Perspectives in Psychoanalysis brings together nineteen essays in updated form, still as relevant, witty and informative today as when the book originally published.

Edgar Levenson is a key figure in the development of Interpersonal psychoanalysis and his ideas remain influential. This book covers his seminal writing on theoretical topics such as models of psychoanalysis, Harry Stack Sullivans theories, and the nature of change, as well as his more familiar focus on practical analytic topics such as transference, supervision, and the use of the self in psychoanalytic clinical work.

The content ranges from more technical articles on psychoanalysis and general systems theory, the holographic dimensions of psychoanalytic change; on to issues of metapsychology; and then to articles devoted to examining the nuances of the therapeutic praxis. The general thrust of the book is in the Interpersonal tradition and is a major contribution to a contemporary elaboration of post-Sullivanian Interpersonalism, and of the two-person model of psychoanalysis that has come to permeate the entire field.

With a new foreword by Donnel Stern, himself a major name in current Interpersonal analysis, this book gives a comprehensive overview of Levensons work, and its continued relevance in contemporary psychoanalytic thought. The Purloined Self is highly readable: the authors witty essayist style and original perspective on its material has made it appealing across a wide range of readerships. It will appeal to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists as well as undergraduate and advanced postgraduate students in these fields.

Edgar A. Levenson is Fellow Emeritus, Training, Supervisory Analyst and Faculty at the William Alanson White Institute. He is Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychology at the NYU Graduate Studies Division, Honorary Fellow at the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health, Honorary Member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Life Fellow of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, and Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Winner of the 2006 Mary S. Sigourney Award, he is author of over one hundred and ten publications, including Fallacy of Understanding (1972) and The Ambiguity of Change (1983).

Alan Slomowitz, Ph.D., is a graduate of the Division I program in Psychoanalysis at the William Alanson White Institute. He is a Supervisor of Psychotherapy at the White Institute, on the Editorial Board of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, and is the Internet Editor of the Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Action blog. Dr. Slomowitz is in private practice in New York City.

Series editor: Donnel Stern

When music is played in a new key, the melody does not change, but the notes that make up the composition do: change in the context of continuity, continuity that perseveres through change. Psychoanalysis in a New Key publishes books that share the aims psychoanalysts have always had, but that approach them differently. The books in the series are not expected to advance any particular theoretical agenda, although to this date most have been written by analysts from the Interpersonal and Relational orientations.

The most important contribution of a psychoanalytic book is the communication of something that nudges the readers grasp of clinical theory and practice in an unexpected direction. Psychoanalysis in a New Key creates a deliberate focus on innovative and unsettling clinical thinking. Because that kind of thinking is encouraged by exploration of the sometimes surprising contributions to psychoanalysis of ideas and findings from other fields, Psychoanalysis in a New Key particularly encourages interdisciplinary studies. Books in the series have married psychoanalysis with dissociation, trauma theory, sociology, and criminology. The series is open to the consideration of studies examining the relationship between psychoanalysis and any other fieldfor instance, biology, literary and art criticism, philosophy, systems theory, anthropology, and political theory.

But innovation also takes place within the boundaries of psychoanalysis, and Psychoanalysis in a New Key therefore also presents work that reformulates thought and practice without leaving the precincts of the field. Books in the series focus, for example, on the significance of personal values in psychoanalytic practice, on the complex interrelationship between the analysts clinical work and personal life, on the consequences for the clinical situation when patient and analyst are from different cultures, and on the need for psychoanalysts to accept the degree to which they knowingly satisfy their own wishes during treatment hours, often to the patients detriment.

For a full list of all the titles in the Psychoanalysis in a New Key series, please visit the Routledge website.

Vol. 32 The Age of Perversion: Desire and Technology in Psychoanalysis and Culture Danielle Knafo and Rocco Lo Bosco

Vol. 31 Unknowable, Unspeakable and Unsprung: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Truth, Scandal, Secrets and Lies Edited by Jean Petrucelli and Sarah Schoen

Vol. 30 Trauma and Countertrauma, Resilience and Counterresilience: Insights from Psychoanalysts and Trauma Experts Edited by Richard B. Gartner

Interpersonal Perspectives in Psychoanalysis

Edgar A. Levenson

Edited by Alan Slomowitz

First published 2017
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2017 Edgar A. Levenson

The right of Edgar Levenson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

First published by William Alanson White Institute, 1991.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Levenson, Edgar A., author. | Slomowitz, Alan, editor.
Title: The purloined self: interpersonal perspectives in psychoanalysis /
Edgar A. Levenson; edited by Alan Slomowitz.
Description: New York: Routledge, 2017. |
Series: Psychoanalysis in a new key book series; 29 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016016767 |
ISBN 9781138101678 (hbk: alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781138101661 (pbk: alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315656786 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Psychoanalysis. | Interpersonal relations.