Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shows how the infantile material brought by the patient is organized by analyst and patient working together and stresses the importance of a knowledge of child development and its relevance for the construction of the life history during the course of analysis. It argues that the battle for the freedom of thought has to be fought individually with every analysand, as well as within oneself. The book examines how conflict can occur between thoughts and the omnipotent unconscious phantasy of being at one with an ideal breast. It discusses a particular form of logic at work behind the scenes in the patient’s free associations. The book describes how psychoanalytic thinking can be extended to the study of social conditions; indeed, the two areas interpenetrate, and the one cannot really be separated from the other.