This book provides a wide-ranging exploration of the experience and implications of failure previously little discussed in psychoanalytic literature.
Failure is a theme of great importance in most clinical conditions, and in everyday life, from birth until death. Its impact can be destabilizing, even disastrous. In spite of these facts, there has been no comprehensive psychoanalytic exploration of this topic. Understanding and Coping with Failure: Psychoanalytic Perspectives fills this gap by examining failure from many perspectives. It goes a long way toward increasing understanding of the numerous issues involved, and provides many valuable insights into ways of coping with these challenging experiences and several chapters discuss positive aspects of failure - what can be learned from what would otherwise simply be regrettable experiences. Brent Willock, Rebecca Coleman Curtis and Lori C. Bohm bring together a rich diversity of topics explored in thoughtful ways by an international group of authors from the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States of America. Failed therapies (which have been examined in the literature) are but one element freshly explored in this comprehensive exploration of the topic.
The book is divided into sections covering the following topics: Failing and Forgiving; Society-Wide Failure; Failure in the Family; Therapeutic Failure; Professional Failure in the Consulting Room and on the Career Path; Integrity versus Despair: Facing Failure in the Final Phase of the Life Cycle; Metaphoric Bridges and Creativity; The Long Shadow of Childhood Relational Trauma. Understanding and Coping with Failure will be eagerly welcomed by all those trying to increase their awareness, understanding, and capacity to work with the many ramifications of this important issue. Because of the uniqueness of this broad, detailed exploration of the complexities of the failure experience, it will be essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, and students in these disciplines. It will also appeal to a wider audience interested in the psychoanalytic perspective.
"This is a unique book that I would thoroughly recommend to all readers to stimulate further thought in and around the issues it covers. Although it is written from a psychoanalytic perspective the text is refreshingly free from theorising and there is very little in its content that would exclude practitioners without psychoanalytic knowledge." Dr Ann Bowes, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, for Therapy Today
"At long last, failure is receiving its psychoanalytic due. This thoughtful, ground breaking compendium approaches failure, not as a deficit, but as an integral aspect of living, and as a necessary experiential component of human experience. This highly recommended book will influence the way that psychotherapy and its expectations are perceived and practiced." - Edgar A. Levenson, M.D., Training & Supervising Analyst, W.A. White Institute, 2006 recipient of the Mary S. Sigourney Award for distinguished contributions to the field of psychoanalysis.
