Psychotic Organisation of the Personality

The book is a psychoanalytic understanding of psychosis as a particular organisation of the personality, based on 'psychotic personality' (Bion) and 'pathological organisations' (Steiner). The theoretical development is traced through Freud, Klein and Bion, along with contemporary Kleinian authors. An important role is granted to psychic pain as the cornerstone of psychopathology, and particularly to the psychotic patient's difficulties in dealing with it. Bion's distinction between "feeling psychic pain and suffering it" is considered an indicator when evaluating the patient's ability to cope with psychoanalytic treatment. The author's experience with a schizophrenic patient is related in detail, offering a view of the patient and her relationship with the analyst from various different angles, and showing how the psychoanalytic method can be used to treat psychosis. <p>CONTENTS</p><p>Introduction</p><p>PART I.</p><p>THEORETICAL (AND CLINICAL) ASPECTS</p><p>CHAPTER ONE</p><p>Psychic pain, the psychotic part of the personality, and pathological organization </p><p>CHAPTER TWO</p><p>Communication and the psychotic part of the personality</p><p>CHAPTER THREE</p><p>Psychotic organization of the personality: </p><p>psychopathological dynamics and foundations</p><p>CHAPTER FOUR</p><p>Consequences of the dynamics of the Psychotic Organization of the Personality</p><p>CHAPTER FIVE</p><p>Symbolization in the Psychotic Organization of the Personality</p><p>CHAPTER SIX</p><p>Delusional Thought, mental Emptiness, and other clinical manifestations</p><p>CHAPTER SEVEN</p><p>Technical Aspects of Psychoanalysis in Patients with Psychotic Organization of the Personality</p><p>PART II</p><p>CLINICAL (AND THEORY)</p><p>CHAPTER EIGHT </p><p>The psychoanalytic method in a schizophrenic patient: beginning and analytical process (I). Psychic pain and transferential vertex</p><p>CHAPTER NINE</p><p>Vicissitudes of the psychoanalytical process (II):</p><p>Emergence from psychotic organization.</p><p>CHAPTER TEN</p><p>General discussion and conclusions</p><p>REFERENCES</p>