Modern individuals often enter analysis because of a feeling of hollowness--a deadened absence of aliveness, meaninglessness, and a sense of being alone in a world that seems otherwise exciting, engaging, and alive. Joseph Newirth believes that these feelings reflect a disease of modern man that can be traced to a failure in the development of subjectivity. Through a careful reading of theory and well-reasoned presentations of case material, Newirth vivdly evokes the contemporary dilemma of the individual's lack of subjectivity.
The author positions this lack of subjectivity as a failure in the development of the unconscious, an understanding that provides the foundation for the development of a two-person theory of the unconscious. Newirth proposes a neo-Kleinian model of the unconscious, the "generative unconscious" in contrast to the "repressed unconscious" of classical theory or the "relational unconsciousness" of interpersonal and relational theory. He defines the "generative unconscious" as a source of creativity, of apprehending and generating experience in terms of emotional meanings through the development of metaphors, transitional experiences, and poetic images.
"Brilliantly illustrated with case material."
–Choice
"Scholarly, thoughtful, and astute. . . . An excellent example of a seasoned clinician describing his own mature thinking about the clinical psychoanalytic enterprise, and making suggestions regarding newer, helpful ways for others to think about their patients."
–Psychologist-Psychoanalyst
"Newirth's conceptualization of the generative unconscious will help a new generation of clinicians struggling to treat the psychopathology of psychological deadness and meaninglessness."
–Lewis Aron, Ph.D., New York University
The author positions this lack of subjectivity as a failure in the development of the unconscious, an understanding that provides the foundation for the development of a two-person theory of the unconscious. Newirth proposes a neo-Kleinian model of the unconscious, the "generative unconscious" in contrast to the "repressed unconscious" of classical theory or the "relational unconsciousness" of interpersonal and relational theory. He defines the "generative unconscious" as a source of creativity, of apprehending and generating experience in terms of emotional meanings through the development of metaphors, transitional experiences, and poetic images.
"Brilliantly illustrated with case material."
–Choice
"Scholarly, thoughtful, and astute. . . . An excellent example of a seasoned clinician describing his own mature thinking about the clinical psychoanalytic enterprise, and making suggestions regarding newer, helpful ways for others to think about their patients."
–Psychologist-Psychoanalyst
"Newirth's conceptualization of the generative unconscious will help a new generation of clinicians struggling to treat the psychopathology of psychological deadness and meaninglessness."
–Lewis Aron, Ph.D., New York University
