Psychoanalytic Thinking in Mental Health Settings

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Sir Simon Wessely, Regius Professor of Psychiatry on 29/12/2020 08:24:30

(5 out of 5)

In his new book Psychoanalytic Thinking in Mental Health Practice Marcus Evans argues that a psychoanalytic approach, which offers a model for understanding the patient’s experience and puts the therapeutic relationships at the heart of mental health work, can help practitioners maintain a humane compassionate and thoughtful approach to their difficult work. Mental illness can interfere with the patient’s perception of reality, relationship with themselves and others, often leaving them feeling isolated in a fragmented state of mind which in turn interferes with their capacity to communicate their distress in a way that is easy to understand. Patients in disturbed states of mind need practitioners to listen to their experience, empathising with their fear, while not being overwhelmed.

In this book, the author who trained and worked as a registered mental health nurse before going on to qualify as a psychoanalyst uses clinical examples from front line mental health settings to illustrate the way psychoanalytic thinking can help mental health practitioners tune into their patient’s underlying preoccupations. In this way, it can help mental health practitioners offer a humane and compassionate home for mental illness.