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The Rupture of Serenity: External Intrusions and Psychoanalytic Technique

Author(s) : Aisha Abbasi

Reviews and Endorsements

‘In observing the ways in which the world of outer actuality invades and shakes the analytic unfolding of one’s inner world, and in doing so with rare clarity and candour, Aisha Abbasi depicts psychoanalysis at its best. Like Vermeer and Chardin, Abbasi is an intimist, bringing the reader into the privacy of her engagement with patients as each uniquely struggles towards insight. The many clinical descriptions are alive with immediacy, exposing the uncertainty, the anguish, and at moments the joy of an analyst at work. As a result, in a stunningly open way, Abbasi reveals how analysis works and her clinical reports are a model for a beginning class on technique or an advanced study group. Analytic principles are all implicitly present, fashionable theories never allowed to intrude. In writing of uncluttered ease and elegance, Abbasi demonstrates the very model of analytic curiosity in the service of the other. Beyond its exploration of external intrusions into clinical work, this work is an admirable contribution to understanding the analytic process. It also is a definite pleasure to read.’
— Warren S. Poland, MD, former editor of JAPA Review of Books; recipient of the 2009 Sigourney Award; and author of Melting the Darkness

‘Psychoanalysis itself could be said to be about ruptures, their containment, and their eventual elaboration within the well-protected space and time of the sessions. Aisha Abbasi gives here a brilliant, detailed and moving account of how she was brought to deal with these crucial aspects of our practice. Psychoanalysis is often said to be closer to art than to science, and this book is a fine example of this: every reader will come out of this rich account with a sense that psychoanalysis is, just like art, an extension and a deepening of the human experience.’
— Dominique Scarfone, MD, training and supervising analyst, Canadian Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; full Professor, University of Montreal; and Associate Editor, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

‘As a clinician, I found The Rupture of Serenity an extraordinarily valuable book and I recommend it highly for beginners and experienced clinicians alike. With extensive and detailed clinical examples, containing deeply personal revelations and insights, Dr Abbasi provides as intimate an account of the clinical situation as can be found in the clinical literature. Showing exquisite sensitivity to her own and her patients’ traumas and narcissistic vulnerability and their manifestations in symptoms, actions, and enactments, Dr Abbasi helps her patients become acquainted with their hidden hurt and sadism that prevent them from knowing their minds. Dr Abbasi’s clinical descriptions provide examples of what is best in psychoanalysis: a genuinely compassionate and tough-minded analyst who courageously and tenaciously searches for emotional truth in the service of her patients’ healing.’
— Lena Ehrlich, PsyD, training and supervising analyst, Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute and adjunct clinical instructor, Department of Psychiatry, Michigan University Medical School