This book describes the life of Karl Abraham, his work in Zurich and Berlin, and his scientific relationship with Freud. Abraham wrote important papers which form the base of clinical psychoanalysis and analytic technique: transference, countertransference, narcissism, envy and childhood trauma. In particular, the book takes into account the contribution Abraham made to understanding the problem of mourning and melancholia, not only through his works dedicated to this topic but also with his contribution within the continuous and scientific communication with Freud, as documented in the Freud-Abraham correspondence (Karnac, 2002). In the final chapter, 'What Abraham could not understand', the book describes how, when Abraham read the manuscript of Mourning and Melancholia, he did not fully understand some passages of Freud's text. He thought for a long time until he could envisage a solution to an unsolved problem - that of the way in which the patient succeeds in overcoming the mourning. This happens when the loved and lost object is reinstalled in his inner world, a very important concept in the Kleinian development.

Author: Franco de Masi
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 05/15/2018
Pages: 87
Weight: 0.32lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.21d
ISBN: 9781782205128

About the Author
de Masi, Franco: - Franco De Masi is a Training and Supervising Analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society and former President of Centro Milanese di Psicoanalisi and Secretary of the Training Milanese Institute. He is a medical doctor and a psychiatrist who worked for twenty years in psychiatric hospitals. Now he lives and works as a full time psychoanalyst in Milan. Currently his main interests are focused on the theoretical and technical psychoanalytical issues related to severely ill patients. He has published several papers in The International Journal of Psychoanalysis and in the Rivista Italiana di Psicoanalisi. He is author and editor of numerous books including Making Death Thinkable.