The Empty Couch The taboo of ageing and retirement in psychoanalysis [Paperback]

The Empty Couchis an introduction to the challenges and obstacles inherent in ageing as a psychoanalyst. It addresses the previously neglected issue of ill health, as well as the significance of ageing for psychoanalysts, exploring the analysts attitude towards getting older, impermanence and sense of time and space.

Covering a wide range of topics Gabriele Junkersbrings togetherexpert contributors whodiscuss the problems of getting physically ill and how to conduct psychoanalysis as an ill therapist. Chapters also address the effects that ageing has on professional stamina, the grief inevitably caused by the losses endured in later life and inquires into the role that institutions (the relevant psychoanalytic institutes or societies) can play in this context.

Setting out to encourage discussion on this vital topic, The Empty Couchbrings this neglected area into sharp focus. It will be of interest to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, counsellors, gerontologists and trainees in the psychoanalytic and psychotherapy worlds.

Civitarese and Ferro, Foreword. Junkers, Preface. Ferro and Civatrese, Prologue. Part I: Growing Older as Psychoanalysts. Junkers, The Ageing Psychoanalyst: Thoughts on Preparing For a Life After the Couch. Quinodoz, Does and Elderly Psychoanalyst Have a Role to Fill? Junkers, Perhaps Later&Transience and Its Meaning For the Analysts. Fredrik Thaulow, Growing Older as an Analyst: Problems of Ethics and Practice Based on Personal Experience. Denis, Psychoanalyst: A Profession for an Immortal? Teising, Narcissistic Challenges for Aging Analysts. References. Part II: Illness and Ending. Junkers, When the Body Speaks and the Psychoanalyst Falls Ill. &ll3+