Description
Book SynopsisThe body, of both the patient and the analyst, is increasingly a focus of attention in contemporary psychoanalytic theory and practice, especially from a relational perspective. There is a renewed regard for the understanding of embodied experience and sexuality as essential to human vitality. However, most of the existing literature has been written by analysts with no formal training in body-centered work. In this book William Cornell draws on his experience as a body-centered psychotherapist to offer an informed blend of the two traditions, to allow psychoanalysts a deep understanding, in psychoanalytic language, of how to work with the body as an ally.
The primary focus of Somatic Experience in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy situates systematic attention to somatic experience and direct body-level intervention in the practice of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. It provides a close reading of the work of Wilhelm Reich, repositioning his work within
Trade Review
Writing about 'body work'--the way a body knows something long before it could ever be 'put' into speech; indeed even if this were an imagined possibility--is as hazardous as writing about music. If you know a work of music, as in if you know the idiom of body speech, then this is not a problem. Only a few psychoanalysts have pressed ahead with a near impossible task. Reich--the only genius in psychoanalysis who understood the foundations of character--was one of them In his own seemingly modest way, William Cornell--known over decades as a man of great wisdom about body knowledge and how the analyst can speak to this--has finally committed himself to paper. His accomplishment, performed in a highly personal narrative and yet within a deeply ordered imperative is not simply unique: it is a one off. There will never be another work even remotely like this. A book of unsparing honesty and deeply devoted to the psychoanalytical project. - Christopher Bollas
This is a brilliant, bold and ground-breaking book. Cornell urges psychoanalytic clinicians to deepen and extend their work by paying closer attention to their patients’ bodily experience, thus enabling them to find something beyond a secure base which he calls a `vital’ base . He also brings passion and scholarship to the study of theory and the book achieves a major integration of, and development in, psychoanalytic theory. It is a great read, too. Anne Alvarez, PhD MACP. Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist.
Table of ContentsDedication, Acknowledgements. Introduction. My body is unhappy. The Radical and Tragic Vision of Wilhelm Reich. To enter the Gesture as Though a Dream: A psychoanalyst encounters the body. Hand to Hand: Touch enactment or touch analysis? Alien bodies: The search of desire. Traces of the Other: Encounters with character. The Silent Call: Reich, Winnicott, and the interrupted gesture. Rough and Tumble: Sensing, playing, and maturation. TAKE ME: Erotic vitality and disturbance. Why Have Sex? Character, Perversion, and Free Choice
