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Hopelessness: Developmental, Cultural, and Clinical Realms

Editor : Salman Akhtar, Editor : Mary Kay O'Neil

Reviews and Endorsements

‘This book fills a lacuna in the psychoanalytic literature that has existed, presumably, because hopelessness is one of the most unbearable feelings human beings endure. Drs Akhtar and O’Neil, together with their outstanding contributors, have met that challenge courageously. With the help of numerous clinical examples, they offer the reader a theoretical, developmental, and technical approach to hopelessness. In addition, the book offers helpful perspectives from literature and cinema illustrating the universality of hopelessness. I found of particular value their insightful discussions about pathological optimism as a defense against hopelessness, the relationship between helplessness and hopelessness, and how frenetic desire can be an expression of hopelessness. Every clinician’s library will be enriched by this book.’
— Axel Hoffer, MD, Training and Supervising Analyst, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute

‘Contending with hopelessness can, at times, lead to the creation of improbable and novel life alternatives that only the good fortunes of a depressive position can allow. More often, lasting despair results in psychic collapse or narcissistic retreat into a schizoid cloister of myth, magic, and distorted mentation. Such dark reaches of human experience form the topic of this book. Searching, informative, and moving essays by distinguished contributors shed light on the myriad phenomena associated with hopelessness that pose both clinical and existential challenges for all of us. Reading them greatly enhances therapeutic empathy for despondent and despairing individuals.’
— M. Hossein Etezady, MD, Faculty member, The Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia