Paranoia
UK £3.99,Canada $6.95,USA $7.95,
UK Publication January 2003
ISBN 9781840463774
Paperback
Buy: | Waterstones| Book Depository
Anxiety is a defining feature of the human condition. Without it, there could be no development. When the source of anxiety is external, we can run away; but when anxiety arises internally, it is not possible to flee. Instead the dangerous internal objects are re-located externally. This defensive procedure, 'projection', is the basis of paranoia. It provides effective 'crisis management', but at a cost, and in its more extreme forms can seriously undermine our relation to reality.
In this wide-ranging book, David Bell discusses the development of the psychoanalytic understanding of paranoia, drawing on the work of Freud, Klein and others. Using case-studies, he demonstrates the ways in which this understanding can be brought to bear on various clinical situations, and brings home the great breadth of paranoid experience. He demonstrates how clarifying the mechanisms that underlie paranoid states will enable us to better understand the social processes that underpin racism, attitudes to immigrants and 'asylum seekers' - and even reactions to the events of ?September 11th?.
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David Bell is a Training and Supervising Analyst of the British Psychoanalytic Society, and a Consultant Psychiatrist in the Adult Department of the Tavistock Clinic.
See more books by: David Bell
