My Basket 0 item - £0.00

Psychic Suffering: From Pain to Growth

Author(s) : Gemma Corradi Fiumara

Reviews and Endorsements

‘This wonderful book, a remarkable challenge to the myth of total emotional anaesthesia, is far less “innocent,” simplistic and naïve than might be expected of any text on psychic pain. It acknowledges the role of natural human suffering in some crucial passages of life as a necessary, possibly shared, experience for growing up. However, it also de-idealises pain per se as a masochistic secret pleasure. And so, dismantling both the idealisation and eroticisation of pain, the author depicts here the possibility of a healthy, integrated and mature human condition.’
––Stefano Bolognini, President of the International Psychoanalytical Association

‘In her latest book Professor Gemma Corradi Fiumara explores and poses profound questions about the enormous problem of a “gravitational force” surrounding us, namely an excessive fear of pain which may ultimately paralyse our maturation, growth and creativity. She writes with all the eloquence, lucidity and insight we have come to expect from her. I found this to be an exceptional and surprisingly uplifting work, and was delighted to have the opportunity to read it.’
––Antonino Ferro, President of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society

‘The author explores the theme of psychic pain in its positive as well as in its negative aspects. Her underlying theme is the exploration of the challenging transition between the uncreative and the creative uses of pain. She then accordingly discusses the quality and nature of the mind’s interception and processing of pain, whether it accepts pain’s challenge, and whether mental growth or psychopathology will be the outcome. She then puts the concept of the transition of psychic pain from the context of one’s experience of passivity to that of psychic agency. I found her ideas about pain to be important for psychoanalytic theory and essential for psychoanalytic technique. They lie on
the cutting edge of our field and find good company with Klein and Bion.’
––Professor James Grotstein, former Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine; author of A Beam of Intense Darkness