Is psychoanalysis a type of literature? Can telling 'stories' help us to get at the truth?

Psychoanalysis as Therapy and Storytelling examines psychoanalysis from two perspectives - as a cure for psychic suffering, and as a series of stories told between patient and analyst.

Antonino Ferro uses numerous clinical examples to investigate how narration and interpretation are interconnected in the analytic session. He draws on and develops Bion's theories to present a novel perspective on subjects such as:



psychoanalysis as a particular form of literature
sexuality as a narrative genre or dialect in the analyst's consulting room
delusion and hallucination
acting out, the countertransference and the transgenerational field
play: characters, narrations and interpretations.

Psychoanalytic clinicians and theoreticians alike will find the innovative approach to the analytic session described here of great interest.

Winner of the 2007 Sigourney Award.

Translated by: Philip Slotkin