To browse Academia. This collection of essays explores the complex phenomenon of sadism, moving beyond individual pathology to situate sadism within social, relational, and developmental contexts. The contributors provide diverse perspectives, enhancing the clinical understanding of sadism and its manifestations in various psychological and social interactions.
The book serves as a resource for practitioners from different disciplines, focusing on the nuanced and often painful expressions of sadism and its implications in therapeutic settings. In this group of invited papers the BJP raises the question of the ethics underpinning psychoanalysis. In , aware of the unfinished nature of his work, Freud wrote: Finally, I am no longer alone, an eager crowd of fellow-workers is ready to make use of what is unfinished or doubtful, and I can leave to them that part of the work that I should otherwise have done myself.
Freud, , p. The theme of Ethics may call to mind organizational frameworks for practice, addressing such important issues as confidentiality and boundaries. In this issue we take a more general view of ethics in the spirit of encouraging breadth and diversity, with the inclusion of papers from Australia, USA and the UK.
We present four papers concerned with the nature of psychoanalytic work showing how orientation and context influence the ethical stance of the psychoanalytic practitioner. We hope that readers will identify with some of these ideas, and will be challenged by others, to reflect on how we work and whether there are ethics particular to psychoanalysis beyond technique and moral considerations in the individual case.
Michael Plastow describes the discourse of 'retail therapy' and its conflict with that of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Susan Schwartz presents an account of a practice whose ethic pushes against the demands of society for 'well-being' and 'happiness'.
