Antonino Ferro

Giuseppe Civitarese

The science of psychoanalysis is now more than a century old. During this period, it has been established as the instrument offering the most profound understanding of the human mind, and as the most effective tool for treating psychic suffering we have at our disposal. A Short Introduction to Psychoanalysis offers readers an introduction to this extraordinarily interesting discipline. In this short volume, Giuseppe Civitarese and Antonino Ferro explore psychoanalysis, which is at the same time a theory of unconscious psychic processes, a technique for investigating these, and a method for curing various forms of psychic suffering, by explaining some of its main themes and ideas. As the only introductory text to the increasingly popular post-Bionian theory of the analytic field, A Short Introduction to Psychoanalysis examines the theory of dreams, the concept of the unconscious, the psychoanalytic clinic, the analysis of children and adolescents, and the history of psychoanalysis. In seeking to give a broad idea of what psychoanalysis is, what it has become, and the direction it may take in the future, this book will appeal to all those curious about this fascinating discipline, and is particularly aimed at students of psychology, the humanities, and of psychoanalytic institutes, as well as qualified psychoanalysts and psychotherapists.

A Short Introduction to Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis and Dreams explores some of the cornerstones of Antonino Ferro’s theoretical model but also attempts to extend the dreamlike boundaries of the model. Based on Bion’s theory of alpha function and the analytic field, Ferro has developed his own original theorization of transformations in dreams and of work in the analytic session as a waking dream. Clearly highlighted in the book is Ferro’s theory that transformation in dreams is the activity which is constantly carried out in the mind of the analyst, who nullifies the reality-status of the patient’s communication and considers the patient’s narrative as a dream which must be constructed in real time in the encounter between the two minds at work. At the centre of Ferro's theoretical proposal stands the transition from a psychoanalysis of contents to a psychoanalysis which develops the apparatus for thinking, based on the conception of an unconscious in a perennial state of construction and transformation, which must be dreamed, and which continuously expands as it is dreamed. Psychoanalysis and Dreams is written for practicing and training psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and psychiatrists and will be helpful in everyday psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic work.

Bion, the Field and the Viscera of the Mind

Psychoanalysis and Dreams

This book originates from a series of clinical supervisions that were held at the Sao Paulo Institute of Psychoanalysis by Antonino Ferro. Supervision in Psychoanalysis: The Sao Paulo Seminars reproduces the dialogues in the seminars that followed these supervisions in their entirety. The transcripts of eight supervised clinical sessions along with the author’s comments allows the reader to: see the different styles of the presenting analysts first hand understand the evaluation of Bion’s thinking as developed by the author With detailed exposure of clinical sessions, their supervision and clarification of the theoretical model of the supervisor, this book will be of interest to psychologists, psychotherapists and psychoanalysts

The São Paulo Seminars

Supervision in Psychoanalysis

Illustrated with richly detailed clinical vignettes, Seeds of Illness, Seeds of Recovery offers a fascinating investigation into the origins, modes and treatment of psychical suffering. Antonino Ferro provides a clear account of his conception of the way the mind works, his interpretation of the analytic understanding of psychopathology, his reconceptualization of the therapeutic process, and implications for analytic technique derived from his view of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis. Drawing on and developing the ideas of Wilfred Bion, Ferro gives a unique perspective on subjects including: Container Inadequacy and Violent Emotions The waking dream and narrations 'Evidence': starting again from Bion Self-analysis and gradients of functioning in the analyst. This highly original approach to the problem of therapeutic factors in psychoanalysis will be of interest to all practising and training psychoanalysts and psychotherapists.

The Genesis of Suffering and the Role of Psychoanalysis

Seeds of Illness, Seeds of Recovery

Antonino Ferro sets out his new conceptual system for analysis, considering not only the inner world of the patient but the continued interaction of that world with the inner world of the analyst.

Experiences in Child Analysis

The Bi-personal Field

Building on their long-lasting scientific partnership, Civitarese and Ferro offer an array of thought-provoking writings bolstered by extensive clinical material, attesting to their shared interpretation of psychoanalysis not only as a treatment for psychic suffering but also as inherently pleasurable and vitalizing. In chapters that reflect inclinations, fantasies and obsessions that are both shared and personal, and by engaging with topics various enough to include dreams, ethics, emotions and aesthetics, the authors demonstrate how the practice of psychoanalysis might no longer be an insidiously moralistic or ideological exercise but rather a practice aimed at opening up and liberating the mind. By providing detailed engagement with the work of Bion and Ogden, as well as insights from their own substantial expertise, the authors explore how the synonymous concepts of playing and vitality can meaningfully inform and change clinical psychoanalytic practice. With rich clinical material and a strong foundation in established theory, this book will appeal to psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic therapists and postgraduate students hoping to make more room in the psychoanalytic lexicon for words like pleasure, dreaming, creativity, hospitality and growth.

Playing and Vitality in Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalytic theory has developed very rapidly in recent years across many schools of thought. One of the most popular builds on the work of Wilfred Bion. Contemporary Bionian Theory and Technique in Psychoanalysis provides a concise and comprehensive introductory overview of the latest thinking in this area, with additional contemporary theoretical influences from Freud, Klein, and Winnicottian thought. Through explorations of the history, theory, and clinical practice of psychoanalysis, Ferro and contributors reveal the changes and developments it has undergone in the research laboratory of the consulting room. Contemporary Bionian Theory and Technique in Psychoanalysis brings together the theories, clinical practice, and techniques that have gradually been developed in a variety of cultural contexts, exploring how they are understood, clarified and enriched by various analysts in daily practice. The book is circular, opening many paths of access to the reader. It aims to revive an experience of creative dialogue exactly as occurs in analysis when two minds think and dream together to transform each other reciprocally. The book sets forth, for instance, a new model of the mind called the oneiric model, taking inspiration from Bion’s conceptualizations and field theory. Covering central psychoanalytic concepts such as transference, dreams and child analysis, this book provides an excellent introduction to the most important contemporary features of Bionian theory and practice. Contemporary Bionian Theory and Technique in Psychoanalysis will appeal to ppsychoanalysts and psychotherapists in training and practice, as well as students of psychiatry and psychology.

Contemporary Bionian Theory and Technique in Psychoanalysis

In The Bi-Personal Field Antonino Ferro sets out his new conceptual system for analysis, considering not only the inner world of the patient but the continued interaction of that world with the inner world of the analyst. The book takes a fresh look at the main aspects of theory and technique in psychoanalysis in the light of Kleinian developments. It reflects the drastic changes due to the thinking of Bion. Illustrated with numerous detailed clinical examples, the author claims that the basic focus of the analytic relationship is the conscious and unconscious interpersonal/ intersubjective processes going on between the analyst and patient.

The Bi-Personal Field

Giovanni Stella

Generazioni di psicoanalisti sono state educate alla convinzione che il perseguimento della verità rappresenti il cuore dell’etica professionale. Il libro di Giovanni Stella e Antonino Ferro rovescia completamente questo assunto, per sviluppare una vera e propria “apologia della menzogna” e per testimoniare la sua intrinseca presenza, in psicoanalisi come nella vita di tutti i giorni. Muovendosi tra psicoanalisi e letteratura, questo libro, a tratti dissacrante e ironico, affronta il tema della verità da un punto di vista teorico e clinico, illustrando le funzioni e le diverse forme della bugia in psicoanalisi e i modi per affrontarla. La bugia esprime un mix variegato di sofferenza e creatività che Stella e Ferro ci propongono di accostare in seduta in modo programmaticamente non moralistico, lasciando che quel miscuglio fl uttui nel campo, si espanda, che i suoi ingredienti trovino nuove possibilità di collegamento e trasformazione, perché non è possibile affrontare la bugia armati di solide certezze e di un’idea un po’ primitiva del rapporto tra verità e menzogna.

Quasi un’apologia della menzogna

True Lies

François Lévy

Christopher Bollas

Riccardo Lombardi

Michael Rustin

Howard B. Levine

Steven Jaron

Ana de Staal

Alberto Rocha Barros

Bernard Chervet

Daniel Kupermann

Elias Mallet da Rocha Barros

Jean-Jacques Tyszler

Joshua Durban

Patricia Cardoso de Mello

Serge Frisch

"Psicanálise e vida covidiana" oferece aos leitores uma oportunidade de refletir sobre as transformações suscitadas pela pandemia da Covid-19 na prática analítica. O impacto traumático provocado pelo distanciamento social e pelas mudanças impostas ao enquadre (sessões on-line), e a subversão da nossa negação habitual da morte são alguns dos temas explorados neste livro. Como entender e tratar os sofrimentos individuais e coletivos que estamos atravessando? Dos freudianos aos lacanianos, dos ferenczianos aos bionianos, passando pelos kleinianos, os autores aqui reunidos apresentam algumas das ferramentas oferecidas pela psicanálise para enfrentar os desafios que as convulsões psicossociais do século XXI parecem nos reservar.

Desamparo coletivo, experiência individual

Psicanálise e vida covidiana

Psychoanalytic Practice Today offers the reader a good understanding of the school of thought inspired by the late work of Wilfred R. Bion. The contributors share a belief in the curative power of the analytic encounter and in the capacity of the human mind to develop from the encounter with a mind capable of reverie, dreaming and thinking. The multitude of vignettes presented emphasise the necessity of the emotional involvement of the analyst with his or her patients for improvement to take place. The book is divided in two parts: ‘Psychopathology’ and ‘Emotions and Feelings’. The first part adapts a more classic description of psychiatric disorders by diagnostic criteria, from neuroses to psychoses and including depression and borderline states. The second part of the book takes a closer look at specific clinical manifestations of basic emotions such as anger, surprise, sadness and more complex ones such as jealousy, abandonment and betrayal. The common thread is represented by the central place of dreaming in the psychoanalytic field as a tool to understand these clinical manifestations, and to allow for their psychic representation as an emotional experience. The contributions together offer a varied introduction to current ideas that are growing increasingly interesting to English speaking readers, with a sufficient character of originality, irreverence and creativity that bears witness to the maturity of Italian psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Practice Today will offer new ideas to the practicing psychoanalyst and psychodynamic psychotherapist.

A Post-Bionian Introduction to Psychopathology, Affect and Emotions

Psychoanalytic Practice Today

In Torments of the Soul, Antonino Ferro revisits and expands on a theme that has long been at the heart of his work: the study of dreams during sleep and in the waking state, and the psychoanalytic narrative. Following Bion, he focuses on the importance of what he sees as the task of contemporary psychoanalysis for generating, containing and transforming previously unmanageable emotions with a clinical psychoanalytic context. Antonino Ferro explores the concepts of 'transformations in dreaming', the session as a dream, individuals transformed into characters, the interpretation of these characters, and readings of them as the functioning of a single mind or as an analytic field created by the meeting of two minds: the client's and the analyst's. Here, a new identity, the analytic field, is formed from the reverie of both participants, which makes it possible to work on complex, nonlinear phenomena in a radical way, creating a 'royal road' to the unconscious communication of the patient. Torments of the Soul contains a plethora of clinical vignettes from the author's extensive psychoanalytic work with adults and children to illustrate the substantial theoretical progression he advocates here. Offering significant and important new interpretations of theories and ways of working with patients, this book will be essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, psychologists, students of these fields and those interested in the human sciences.

Psychoanalytic transformations in dreaming and narration

Torments of the Soul

In The Bi-Personal Field: Experiences in Child Analysis, Antonino Ferro devised a new model of the relationship between patient and analyst. In the Analyst's Consulting Room complements and develops this model by concentrating on adults. From the standpoint of the "analytic field", Antonino Ferro explores basic psychoanalytic concepts, such as criteria for analysability and ending the analysis, transformations that occur during the session, the impasse and negative therapeutic reactions, sexuality and setting. The author explores certain themes in greater depth, including: * ways in which characters that appear during sessions can be interpreted * continual indications given by the patient during the emotional upheavals of the field * the function of "narrator" which the analyst takes on to mark the boundaries of the possible worlds. Through clinical narrative, Ferro renders Bion's often complex ideas in a very personal and accessible way, making this book invaluable for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, psychiatrists and psychologists.

In the Analyst's Consulting Room

Is psychoanalysis a type of literature? Can telling 'stories' help us to get at the truth? Psychoanalysis as Therapy and Storytelling examines psychoanalysis from two perspectives - as a cure for psychic suffering, and as a series of stories told between patient and analyst. Antonino Ferro uses numerous clinical examples to investigate how narration and interpretation are interconnected in the analytic session. He draws on and develops Bion's theories to present a novel perspective on subjects such as: psychoanalysis as a particular form of literature sexuality as a narrative genre or dialect in the analyst's consulting room delusion and hallucination acting out, the countertransference and the transgenerational field play: characters, narrations and interpretations. Psychoanalytic clinicians and theoreticians alike will find the innovative approach to the analytic session described here of great interest. Winner of the 2007 Sigourney Award.

Antonino Ferro

About

Books

Join the club