This book provides a theoretical and clinical exploration of the field of psychoanalysis. Offering a uniquely global perspective it considers trends in contemporary psychoanalysis, charting a course between the innovative and traditional.

Stefano Bolognini is a Psychiatrist and a Training and Supervising Analyst and is President of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, Italy. He works and lives in Bologna, and is consultant and supervisor of the Italian National Mental Health Service. He is a member of the European Board of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis.

Introduction. Part I: Three Prefaces to the Discussion. Freud's "Objects": Plurality and Complexity in the Internal World and in the Analyst's Working Self. Proposal for an Alternative Review of Therapeutic Factors: In the Margins of Gabbard and Westen's "Rethinking Therapeutic Action". Speaking of Things, Speaking of Words. Part II: Interpsychic Passages. The Intrapsychic and the Interpsychic. "Interpret-Action". My Dog Doesn't Know Descartes: The Disenchanted Analysis of the "Interpsychic" Man-dog. The Psychosexuality of Mucous Membranes: Inter-body and Interpsychic. The Complex Nature of Psychoanalytic Empathy: A Theoretical and Clinical Exploration. The Glass Half Empty or Half Full: Dream Work and Oneiric Working Through. Part III: From the Transpsychic to the Interpsychic. Peleus's Hug: Survival, Containment, and Con-viction in the Analytic Experience with Serious Pathologies. The Courage to Be Afraid. Trust in One's Self: Pseudomaturity and Disarticulation Between Ego and Self in Panic Attacks. References. Index.