Francesca Biagi-Chai’s book - a translation from the French of Le Cas Landru - tackles the issue of criminal responsibility in the case of serial killers, and other 'mad' people who are nonetheless deemed to be answerable before the law. The author, a Lacanian psychoanalyst and senior psychiatrist in France, with extensive experience working in institutional settings, analyses the logic informing the crimes of famous serial killers. Addressing the Landru case (which was the inspiration for...

In this seminal work, Foucault examines the role of psychiatry in modern criminal justice and its method of categorizing individuals who "resemble their crime before they commit it."From 1971 until his death in 1984, Michel Foucault gave public lectures at the world-famous Collège de France. Attended by thousands, these were pivotal events in the world of French letters. Abnormal, the first of thirteen volumes published by Picador, delves into the fascinat...

In The Ancestor Syndrome Anne Ancelin Schutzenberger explains and provides clinical examples of her unique psychogenealogical approach to psychotherapy. She shows how, as mere links in a chain of generations, we may have no choice in having the events and traumas experienced by our ancestors visited upon us in our own lifetime.The book includes fascinating case studies and examples of 'genosociograms' (family trees) to illustrate how her clients have conquered seemingly irr...

A book which should appeal to both literary theorists and to readers of the novel, this study invites the reader to consider how the plot reflects the patterns of human destiny and seeks to impose a new meaning on life.

‘A focus on the body, its actions, and its cognitive mechanisms identifies ... foundational principles of activity that link the three elements of theatre; Story, Space, and Time. The three meet in, are defined by, and expressed through the actor’s body.’ – from the IntroductionEmbodied Acting is an essential, pragmatic intervention in the study of how recent discoveries within cognitive science can – and should – be applied to performance. For too long, a...

A classic study which, by synthesizing the approaches of psychoanalysis and group dynamics, has added a new dimension to the understanding of group phenomena.

Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time, 1913–27) changed the course of modern narrative fiction. This Introduction provides an account of Proust's life, the socio-historical and cultural contexts of his work and an assessment of his early works. At its core is a volume-by-volume study of In Search of Lost Time, which attends to its remarkable superstructure, as well as to individual images and the intricacies of Proust's finely-stitched prose. The book reaches beyon...

This book focuses on Lacan's revisions and renewals of psychoanalytic concepts, and shows the ways in which Lacan succeeded in the reinvention of psychoanalysis. It explores those steps that led him to assert an unprecedented formula that says against all expectation that the unconscious is real.

'Monsieur de Maupassant has never before been so clever.' Henry James Henry James's admiration for 'this masterly little novel' has been echoed throughout the twentieth century by readers of Pierre et Jean. It marked a turning-point in the development of French fiction, situated as it is between traditional social realism and the psychological novel. It is recognized as a classic study of filial jealousy, triggered by one of the two brothers of its title finding himself the sole inheritor ...

People react very differently to the process of ageing. Some people shy away from old age for as long as they can and eventually spend it reflecting on times when they were physically and mentally stronger and more independent. For others old age is embraced as a new adventure and something to look forward to.In this book psychoanalyst Danielle Quinodoz highlights the value of old age and the fact that although many elderly people have suffered losses, either of their own good heal...

The Dead Mother brings together original essays in honour of André Green. Written by distinguished psychoanalysts, the collection develops the theme of his most famous paper of the same title, and describes the value of the dead mother to other areas of clinical interest: psychic reality, borderline phenomena, passions and identification.The concept of the 'dead mother' describes a clinical phenomenon, sometimes difficult to identify, but always present in a substantial nu...

This book, a sequel to the edited book Dangerous Patients: A Psychodynamic Approach to Risk Assessment and Management, places the emphasis on working in psychodynamic psychotherapy with patients who have killed to gain a greater understanding of their internal world and object relationships.