1st Edition
Studies on Hysteria Revisited Charles Melman on Trauma, Incompatibility, Repression and the Unconscious
Steeped in Lacanian theory, this book is the first of its kind to present a longitudinal approach to the study of hysteria.
In these 21 seminars Dr Melman leads us from the first records of hysteria to Freud’s major discovery of the principal concepts of trauma, incompatibility, repression and the unconscious. Peppered with invaluable clinical examples, the author guides readers through difficult concepts as he links hysteria to the birth of psychoanalysis itself, and demonstrates how the reader may become implicated in this discourse.
Capturing Melman’s indomitable spirit, Studies on Hysteria Revisited will be an important read for graduate students, clinicians, and those in psychoanalytic formation.
Biography
Charles Melman is a leading French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Friend and collaborator of Lacan, he founded L’Association Lacanienne Internationale in Paris in 1982. He has published extensively and contributed influentially to psychoanalysis worldwide.
Helen Sheehan studied psychoanalysis in Paris where she obtained her PhD in 2000. She has contributed to psychoanalytic journals in Ireland, England and France. She works as a psychoanalyst in Dublin, and is a member of L’Association Lacanienne Internationale.
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"What a pleasure is in store for you if you can let Melman’s masterful hand guide you from Freud’s signature work on hysteria through to contemporary suffering. Be guided by the prodigious sensitivity and power of Melman’s insights; be guided by the wisdom and warmth of one of the world’s greatest living psychoanalysts as he takes you through the worlds of Freud and Lacan." – C. Edward Robins, Dr. Robins & Associates NYC."This work invites a rereading of the symptom, after the discovery by Freud in 1920 of the death drive and its embodiment repetition, by giving to the symptom the status of a ‘fact of structure’. Structure is for Lacan, the effect of there being no sexual rapport between human subjects. As a result, hysteria renews itself by offering the body as a cause of this sexual dissatisfaction. There remains the question of its possible cure – this is the task Dr. Melman sets himself." – Professor Christian Hoffmann, Honorary Professor of Psychoanalysis at the University of Paris.
"This English translation offers to those unfamiliar with the French language a foundational text of Lacanian theory and its clinic. By following Freud closely this work restores hysteria to its central place in the structure of neurosis and offers a key to interpreting some of the biggest problems posed by modernity including the phenomena of the leader and the group in populist movements today." – Janja Jerkov, former professor of Southern Slavic Languages and Literature at La Sapienza, University of Rome. Former member of the cartel of the Presidency, L’Association Lacanienne Internationale in Italy. Council member of the Bureau of A.L.I. Paris.
