Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychoanalysis

This book provides easy-to-read, concise, and clinically useful explanations of over 1000 terms and concepts from the field of psychoanalysis. The history of each term is included as is the name of its originator. An attempt is made to demonstrate how the meanings of the term under consideration might have changed, with new connotations accruing with the passage of time and with growth of knowledge. Where possible, the glossary includes diverse perspectives on a given idea and highlights how different analysts have used the same term for different purposes and with different theoretical aims in mind.

Ranging from abreaction and abstinence, metapsychology and malignant narcissism to xenophobia and zoophilia, the terms and ideas covered in the book make for a panoramic view of the psychoanalytic universe. The collection is wide-ranging, eclectic, and fundamentally generous: it includes the old, new, controversial, odd-sounding, familiar, unfamiliar―all sorts of terms and phrases from the one hundred years history of psychoanalysis. While generally crisp and pithy, a definition here and there also includes an endearing anecdote, a wry remark regarding the hidden ironies in the concept at hand, and a deliciously surprising linkage with another idea in the book.