1st Edition

A Woman's Unconscious Use of Her Body A Psychoanalytical Perspective

By Dinora Pines Copyright 2010
    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    Drawing on Dinora Pines’ lifetime of clinical experience this classic book provides a psychoanalytic understanding of women’s relationships with their bodies, focusing on key moments in women’s lives.

    With chapters organised to follow the female life-cycle, topics covered include:

    • the turbulence of adolescence
    • pregnancy and childbirth
    • infertility and abortion
    • menopause and old age
    • the traumatic effects of surviving the Holocaust.

    With a foreword from Susie Orbach, this book will be of interest to mental health professionals including counsellors, psychotherapists and psychoanalysts.

    Orbach, Foreword.  Introduction. Skin Communication: Early Skin Disorders and Their Effect on Transference and Countertransference. The Psychoanalytic Dialogue: Transference and Countertransference. Adolescent Promiscuity: A Clinical Presentation. Pregnancy and Motherhood: Interaction Between Fantasy and Reality. Adolescent Pregnancy and Motherhood. The Relevance of Early Psychic Development to Pregnancy and Abortion. Pregnancy, Miscarriage and Abortion. Emotional Aspects of Infertility and its Remedies. The Menopause. Old Age. Working With Women Survivors of the Holocaust: Affective Experiences in Transference and Countertransference. The Impact of the Holocaust on the Second Generation.

    Biography

    Dinora Pines, originally trained as a medical practitioner, was an eminent psychoanalyst in the British Society of Psycho-Analysis and lectured throughout the world. She died in 2002.

    "Dinora Pines’ collection of papers republished now remains as refreshing, moving and profound as when they first came out. […] Her dedication to understand the dilemmas of the women who sought therapy with her, led her to extend the conventions of both psychoanalytic understandings and practice in deeply sensitive and useful ways.[…]Rereading this book brings Dinora and her compassion and intelligence alive once again."Susie Orbach, From the Foreword

    "The way this book is structured makes reading it a pleasure. Each chapter is introduced by a summary of theories, with a minimum of jargon and a clarity of theme. This is followed by clinical examples and ends with conclusions drawn from her experiences. This gives the reader an appreciation of an expert clinician at work, whose honesty about admitting to herself her feelings in her countertransference, lead to such a deep understanding of her patients, which in turn helped them to become conscious of their unconscious behaviour. This is a rare, beautifully written and instructive book which should be read by a much wider audience than psychoanalysts." - Dr. Robert Gillen, Psychoanalysis Downunder, Issue 10, 2010

    Review of first publication:

    "The collection presents a clear and moving picture of a fine clinician's work and thinking."  - Nancy Kulish, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly