The Delusional Person: Bodily Feelings in Psychosis

In a long and distinguished career Salomon Resnik has established himself as a psychoanalyst of international reputation. The present volume gathers together, for the first time in an English translation, writings essential for a fuller understanding of his important and original ideas.

Psychosis has been Resnik's central psychoanalytic preoccupation. Framed by his 'introductory self-reflections' and a postscript, and with an appreciative foreword by R. Horacio Etchegoyen, each chapter in this book represents a revised paper, and proffers insightful and incisive thoughts on the complex condition of psychosis.

Drawing on, amongst others, the work of Bion, Winnicott and Herbert Rosenfeld, Resnik's sensitive and subtle probings may perhaps be summarised in the form of a question: how can a psychoanalytic approach overcome the many difficulties - powerful defence mechanisms, narcissistic rage, recalcitrant delusions and deep feelings of loss - that stand in the way of restoring the person to reciprocity, recognition of the other, and reconnection with the world? This book represents a life-long endeavour to explore, understand and facilitate this possibility of reparation.