Psychoanalysis is a strange and mysterious practice. In his new book, Ian Parker offers insights into his own experiences, first as trainee then as analyst, the common assumptions about psychoanalysis which can be so misleading, as well as a map of the key debates in the field today.

Ian Parker is a psychoanalyst in Manchester, UK, Honorary Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, Secretary of Manchester Psychoanalytic Matrix, and President of the College of Psychoanalysts, UK.

Introduction: Psychoanalysis is not what you think

1 Science: Avoiding analysis of the mind

2 Sex: Avoiding analysis of the body

3 Schisms: Avoiding analytic politics

4 Teaching: Avoiding analytic practice

5 Society: Engaging with the British Tradition

6 Conversations: Taking care of health

7 Therapy: Closer encounters

8 Research: Studying and experiencing

9 Training: In Group Analysis

10 Personal: Training analysis

11 Diagnosis: Clinical structures

12 Supervision: Confession and confidentiality

13 Enlightenment: Second nature in Brazil

14 Trauma: Truth and reconciliation

15 Theory: Zizek, culture and the clinic

16 Identification: Laibach and the state

17 Japan: A limit case for analysis

18 Queer: From Russia with love

19 Islam: Faith in Freud

20 Transference: Ethics in action

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Index