1st Edition

Madness or Knowing the Unbearable Truth A Psychoanalytic Journey in Search of Sanity

By Tova Zaltz Copyright 2019
264 Pages
by Routledge

264 Pages
by Routledge

264 Pages
by Routledge

The Impossible Choice offers readers a narrative of the relationship between a therapist and her patient who desperately wants to discover her past. With no memory and no way of knowing what was real, her long therapeutic journey was to last 26 years, half her lifetime. Her only reality was the life she lived in the presence of her therapist. The narrative unfolds to reveal a story of horrific... Read more

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

NOTES TO READER

PART I CREATING A SAFE PLACE INSIDE

Chapter One IN THE BEGINING – A STONE

Chapter Two SEPARATING INSIDE FROM OUTSIDE

Chapter Three TAKE OUT THE BADNESS – I WANT TO BE GOOD

Chapter Four FROM DEAD ENDS TO DID

Chapter Five ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO COMMUNICATE – WRITING

Chapter Six HOW CAN I KNOW THAT WE ARE REAL?

Chapter Seven THE STORY OF INCEST :KEEPING IT ALL IN THE FAMILY

Chapter Eight THE DANGER OF THE GOOD OBJECT

Chapter Nine ON INCEST, BLINDNESS AND PARANOIA

Chapter Ten THE HOSPITAL DREAM

Chapter Eleven THE SILENCE IS NOT TO BE BATTLED – BUT UNDERSTOOD

Chapter Twelve THE DEATH OF DAD: LONELINESS

Chapter Thirteen ON PIMPS AND PROSTITUTES

Chapter Fourteen WHEN TRAUMA HAS NO WITNESS

PART II LIVING THE PAST IN THE PRESENT LIVING DEATH

Chapter Fifteen ENACTMENT INSTEAD OF MEMORY

Chapter Sixteen FROM HANGING DOLL TO DATH BY HANGING

Chapter Seventeen THE CULT DREAM

Chapter Eighteen ALICE IN HORRORLAND

Chapter Nineteen THE MYSTERIOUS GARDEN

PART III FROM INSIDE TO OUTSIDE CHOOSING LIFE

Chapter Twenty ENTER: THE MINISTER

Chapter Twenty-one FROM PREGNANCY TO BIRTH

EPILOGUE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Biography

Tova Zaltz is a clinical psychologist and a psychoanalyst, member of the Tel Aviv Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, with a private practice near Jerusalem, where she works with people of all ages. She has treated and supervised individuals, groups and staff in private and public institutions, including children with learning difficulties, high-risk families, as well as bereaved families. Tova has extensive experience in the development of psychoanalytic thinking within educational systems.

"This is a most striking account where different phases and happenings are recorded not in the mind but in bodily formations. For any therapist working with bizarre forms of psychosis this is an inspiring book."
--Neville Symington, author, Narcissism: A New Theory, The Making of a Psychotherapist, Becoming a Person through Psycho-Analysis and co-author of The Clinical Thinking of Wilfred Bion (Routledge)

"This stunning book is destined to become a classic. The story of this patient’s journey is gripping, touching and overwhelming as it probes various depths of the most profound suffering in the face of ultimate human cruelty, the patient’s brilliantly creative - bordering on and including deranged – psychological strategies of survival, and the exquisite sensitivity of the therapist to unconscious processes along with deep caring and respect for her patient."
--Israel W. Charny, PhD., Author, Psychotherapy for a Democratic Mind: Treatment of Intimacy, Tragedy, Violence and Evil

"What a wonderful book Tova Zaltz has written. A detailed portrayal of a twenty year journey in therapy engaging madness within and madness without. Profound engagement with psychic reality opened doors of violent abuse in childhood mirrored by the patient’s aggression turned against herself. This book is packed with rich psychological themes expressed in moment to moment interaction. One comes through, with Tova and her patient, challenges of working together and the need to grow."
--Michael Eigen, PhD, Author, Faith, Contact with the Depths, and The challenge of Being Human

"This is a rare book - I am not aware of any other that provides a detailed and respectful clinical account of a twenty-six year psychoanalytic treatment of a woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder. This is written by a brave and significant newcomer to the field with lyrical and painful openness and rigour who has honed her understanding through the encounter and fulfils the wish of the patient to be remembered."
--Valerie Sinason, PhD, MACP, MInstPsychoanal, Founder Director Clinic for Dissociative Studies, 2016 ISSTD Lifetime Achievement Award