Psychosis, Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry in Post War USA: On the Borderland of Madness

Author(s) : Orna Ophir

Psychosis, Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry in Post War USA: On the Borderland of Madness

Book Details

  • Publisher : Routledge
  • Published : 2015
  • Cover : Hardback
  • Pages : 226
  • Category :
    Clinical Psychology
  • Category 2 :
    Psychoanalysis
  • Catalogue No : 37504
  • ISBN 13 : 9781138823525
  • ISBN 10 : 113882352X

Also by Orna Ophir

Schizophrenia: An Unfinished History

Schizophrenia: An Unfinished History

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Covering the last four decades of the 20th century, this book explores the unwritten history of the struggles between psychoanalysis and psychiatry in post war USA, inaugurated by the neo-somatic revolution which had profound consequences for the treatment of psychotic patients. Analysing and synthesising major developments in this critical and clinical field, Orna Ophir discusses how leading theories redefined what schizophrenia is, and how to treat it, offering a fresh interpretation of the nature and challenges of the psychoanalytic profession. The book also considers the internal dynamics and conflicts within mental health organizations, their theoretical paradigms and therapeutic practices.

Opening a timely debate considering both the continuing relevance and the inherent limitations of the psychoanalytic approach, the book demonstrates how psychoanalysts reinterpreted their professional identity by formalizing and disseminating knowledge among their fellow practitioners, while negotiating with neighbouring professions in the medical fields, such as psychiatry, pharmacology, and the burgeoning neurosciences. Chapters explore the ways in which psychoanalysts constructed - and also transgressed upon - the boundaries of their professional identity and practice as they sought to understand schizophrenia and treat its patients. The book argues that among the many relationships psychoanalysis sustained with psychiatry, some weakened their own social role as service providers, while others made the theory and practice of psychoanalysis a viable contender in the jurisdictional struggles between professions.

Psychosis, Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry in Post War USA will appeal to researchers, academics, graduate students and advanced undergraduates who are interested in the history of psychoanalysis, psychiatry, the medical humanities, and the history of science and ideas. It will also be of interest to clinicians, health care professionals and other practitioners.

About the Author(s)

Orna Ophir is an Associate Director of the DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy & the Arts, Weill Cornell Medical College, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at New York University, where she teaches at The Gallatin School for Individualized Studies and is affiliated with the Department of Comparative Literature. Ophir is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City and a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), serving on its Committee on the History of Psychoanalysis.

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