The Christopher Bollas Reader [Hardcover]

This reader brings together a selection of seminal papers by Christopher Bollas.

Essays such as The Fascist State of Mind, The Structure of Evil, and The Functions of History have established his position as one of the most significant cultural critics of our time. Also included are examples of his psychoanalytical writings, such as The Transformational Object and Psychic Genera, that deepen and renew interest in unconscious creative processes. Two recent essays, Character and Interformality and The Wisdom of the Dream extend his work on aesthetics and the role of form in everyday life.

This is a collection of papers that will appeal to anyone interested in human experience and subjectivity.

The Transformational Object. Extractive Introjection. Normotic Illness. The Destiny Drive. Psychic Genera. The Fascist State of Mind. Why Oedipus? The Functions of History. Cracking Up. The Structure of Evil. Mental Interference. Creativity and Psychoanalysis. Architecture and the Unconscious. What is Theory? Character and Interformality. The Wisdom of the Dream.

The Reader amounts to a substantial retrospective, including a selection of fourteen essays dating from the 1970s as well as two previously unpublished essays. This makes it an important publication in its own right as well as a useful primer. - Steven Groarke,International Journal of Psychoanalysis

What a life project Bollas has realized! And what a pleasure it is to go along for the ride!&Bollas's vision of human experience opens up. And it is dazzling   - Alfred Margulies, Journal of the American Psychoanalytical Association

Praise for Bollas' previous publications: