Inside Lives: Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality

Inside Lives belongs to the heart of the thinking and working of the Tavistock Clinic. Its aim is to bring psychoanalytic theory to life, to make it accessible to a much wider range of readers, both lay and professional, than would normally be familiar with this kind of approach. In the simplest of terms it tells the most complex of stories: the story of the internal development of a person from infancy to old age. In so doing, it reflects and encompasses the generational structure of the clinic as a whole, tracing the interacting influences - between infant, child, adolescent and adult - on the nature and quality of emotional growth and development.

This book provides a perspective on the relationship between psychoanalytic theory and the nature of human development, which is not currently available in written form. Following the major developmental phases from infancy to old age, the author lucidly explores those vital aspects of experience, which promote mental and emotional growth and those which impede it. In bringing together a wide range of clinical, non-clinical and literary examples it offers a detailed and accessible introduction to contemporary psychoanalytic thought and provides a personal and vivid approach to the elusive question of how the personality develops.