Erotic Revelations

Erotic Revelations: Clinical Applications and Perverse Scenarios delves into erotic desires and fantasies … above all, how our sexuality expresses our inner being and defines the ways in which we engage in the psychoanalytic situation. Andrea Celenza addresses the 'desexualization' of the psychoanalytic field by reclaiming sexuality as one of the many nexes that are of central concern to the patient. She illustrates a wide range of erotic manifestations (for both therapist and patient) and offers recommendations to practitioners for dealing with erotic material when it arises.

Andrea Celenza has divided this book into two parts, with clinical, theoretical, and technical discussions in each chapter:

Part I: Varieties and Meanings of Erotic Transferences and Countertransferences

• Presents the varieties and meanings of erotic transferences and countertransferences common in clinical situations;
• Includes case studies of erotic material used as examples of phases in treatment as well as moments of defensive impasse;
• Includes discussions of the management of aggression, underlying merger fantasies, uses of countertransferences (in multiple forms), and dilemmas surrounding self-disclosure.

Part II: Perverse Scenarios Revisited

• Reconceptualizes and restores the term perversion into the clinical lexicon;
• Views perversion as a quality of relating rather than a specific action or behavior;
• Presents a wide range of clinical illustrations that demonstrates the usefulness of this reformulation.

Erotic Revelations puts sexuality back into psychoanalytic theorizing and makes a place for erotic transferences of whatever shape, in every analysis or therapy. With a strong clinical focus, this book will redefine how to work with many aspects of sex and gender in clinical psychoanalytic practice and will be an essential resource for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, psychologists, educators, trainers, students and those with an interest in the mental health field.

“"Andrea Celenza's major work on sexual misconduct has become indispensable. Now she has written something broader, an original and scholarly linkage of 'sexuality as sexuality' to the wider issues of relationality and meaning with which many clinicians are more comfortable. As such, the book is much needed. Celenza never ducks the difficult issues for clinicians when experiencing and working with sexual pressures; she never resorts to trendy euphemisms or word games. The book will be appreciated by many kinds of therapy professionals, not just psychoanalysts (who will recognise an author at the height of her powers)."- Andrew Samuels, Professor of Analytical Psychology, University of Essex, UK "In this provocative new contribution, Andrea Celenza courageously explores some of the most controversial areas in contemporary psychoanalysis. With detailed clinical examples she challenges the reader to think of eros, gender, and perverse scenarios in complex, multi-determined ways that transcend binary distinctions or reductive classical formulations. I highly recommend it to all psychoanalytically-oriented clinicians."- Glen O. Gabbard, MD, Author, Love and Hate in the Analytic Setting”

"Andrea Celenza’s major work on sexual misconduct has become indispensable. Now she has written something broader, an original and scholarly linkage of ‘sexuality as sexuality’ to the wider issues of relationality and meaning with which many clinicians are more comfortable. As such, the book is much needed. Celenza never ducks the difficult issues for clinicians when experiencing and working with sexual pressures; she never resorts to trendy euphemisms or word games. The book will be appreciated by many kinds of therapy professionals, not just psychoanalysts (who will recognise an author at the height of her powers)."- Andrew Samuels, Professor of Analytical Psychology, University of Essex, UK

"In this provocative new contribution, Andrea Celenza courageously explores some of the most controversial areas in contemporary psychoanalysis. With detailed clinical examples she challenges the reader to think of eros, gender, and perverse scenarios in complex, multi-determined ways that transcend binary distinctions or reductive classical formulations. I highly recommend it to all psychoanalytically-oriented clinicians."- Glen O. Gabbard, MD, Author, Love and Hate in the Analytic Setting

"Andrea Celenza’s major work on sexual misconduct has become indispensable. Now she has written something broader, an original and scholarly linkage of ‘sexuality as sexuality’ to the wider issues of relationality and meaning with which many clinicians are more comfortable. As such, the book is much needed. Celenza never ducks the difficult issues for clinicians when experiencing and working with sexual pressures; she never resorts to trendy euphemisms or word games. The book will be appreciated by many kinds of therapy professionals, not just psychoanalysts (who will recognise an author at the height of her powers)."- Andrew Samuels, Professor of Analytical Psychology, University of Essex, UK

"In this provocative new contribution, Andrea Celenza courageously explores some of the most controversial areas in contemporary psychoanalysis. With detailed clinical examples she challenges the reader to think of eros, gender, and perverse scenarios in complex, multi-determined ways that transcend binary distinctions or reductive classical formulations. I highly recommend it to all psychoanalytically-oriented clinicians."- Glen O. Gabbard, MD, Author, Love and Hate in the Analytic Setting

"What first strikes the reader of this book is its unrelenting ambition. It is about sex, erotic transference and psychoanalytic epxloration, but it inteds from the first chapter to be so much more, attempting to deconstruct the core edifice of the self, leading to its redefinition towards the end of the book. This new volume, is not only ambitious; it is fearless in its approach to traditional theories on sex, gender and binary distinctions." -Ariella Perry, MSW, Sexual and Relationship Therapy

Andrea Celenza is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School. She has authored numerous papers and two books on psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. She is the recipient of several awards and is in private practice in Lexington, Massachusetts.

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