Hysteria

Bollas offers an original and illuminating theory of hysteria that weaves its well-known features - repressed sexual ideas; indifference to conversions; over-identification with the other - into the hysteric form.

Informationen zum Autor Christopher Bollas is a psychoanalyst in private practice in London. He is the author of The Shadow of the Object (1987), Being a Character (1992), Cracking Up (1995), The New Informants (with David Sundelson) (1995), and The Mystery of Things (1999). Klappentext In Hysteria the distinguished psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas offers an original and illuminating theory of hysteria that weaves its well-known features -- repressed sexual ideas; indifference to conversion; over-identification with the other -- into the hysteric form.Through a re-reading of Freud, Bollas argues that sexuality in itself is traumatic to all children, as it "destroys" the relation to the mother, transfiguring her from "mamma", the infant's caregiver, to "mother", the child's and father's sex object. For the hysteric this recognition is endlessly traumatic and the hysterical personality forms itself into an organized opposition to this knowledge.True to his earlier writings, Bollas' vision is thought provoking and mind expanding. Hysteria brings new perspectives to long-standing ideas, making enlightening reading for students and professionals involved in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy alike, as a well as the lay reader who takes an interest in the formation of personality in western culture. Zusammenfassung Bollas offers an original and illuminating theory of hysteria that weaves its well-known features - repressed sexual ideas; indifference to conversions; over-identification with the other - into the hysteric form. Inhaltsverzeichnis Introduction. The Characters of Psychoanalysis. Sexual Epiphany. Sexuality and its Transformations. In the Beginning is the Mother. Erotising Absence. Functions of the Father. The Seduction of the Story. Hot and Cold. Showing Off. Self as Theatre. The Malignant Hysteric. Transference Addicts. Seduction and the Therapist. The Last Chapter. References. Index....

Autorentext

Christopher Bollas is a psychoanalyst in private practice in London. He is the author of The Shadow of the Object (1987), Being a Character (1992), Cracking Up (1995), The New Informants (with David Sundelson) (1995), and The Mystery of Things (1999).

Klappentext

Hysteria has disappeared from contemporary culture only insofar as it has been subjected to a repression through the popular diagnosis of 'borderline personality disorder'. In Hysteria the distinguished psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas offers an original and illuminating theory of hysteria that weaves its well-known features - repressed sexual ideas; indifference to conversion; over-identification with the other - into the hysteric form. Through a rereading of Freud, Bollas argues that sexuality in itself is traumatic to all children, as it 'destroys' the relation to the mother, transfiguring her from 'mamma', the infant's caregiver, to 'mother', the child's and father's sex object. For the hysteric this recognition is endlessly traumatic and the hysterical personality forms itself into an organised opposition to this knowledge. True to his earlier writings, Bollas' vision is thought provoking and mind expanding. Hysteria brings new perspectives to long-standing ideas, making enlightening reading for students and professionals involved in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy alike, as well as the lay reader who takes an interest in the formation of personality in western culture.

Inhalt
Introduction. The Characters of Psychoanalysis. Sexual Epiphany. Sexuality and its Transformations. In the Beginning is the Mother. Erotising Absence. Functions of the Father. The Seduction of the Story. Hot and Cold. Showing Off. Self as Theatre. The Malignant Hysteric. Transference Addicts. Seduction and the Therapist. The Last Chapter. References. Index.