Subject to Change

What can psychotherapy and psychoanalysis teach us about turning human misery into insight and personal freedom? Polly Young-Eisendrath offers a response that opens new vistas in our understanding of ourselves within the complexity of a postmodern world. Subject to Change is a collection of essays spanning a twenty-year period of theorising and practice of a highly regarded senior Jungian analyst. The diverse ideas and perspectives discussed in the essays deal with the big issues surrounding how Jungian analysts and psychoanalysts understand their profession and what it teaches us about our subject lives. The book is divided into four clear and informative sections: * Subjectivity and uncertainty * Gender and desire * Transference and transformation * Transcendence and subjectivity. The classic essays presented in this book will have significant appeal to all those concerned with Jungian analysis, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, gender development, and the interface between psychotherapy and spirituality.

Polly Young-Eisendrath is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont Medical College and a psychologist and Jungian analyst practicing in central Vermont, USA.

Introduction: Changing the Subject: the Self as a Verb. Part 1: Subjectivity and Uncertainty. The Science of Intention and the Intentions of Science. Struggling with Jung: the Value of Uncertainty. On the Difficulty of Being a Jungian Psychoanalyst. Subject to Change: Feminism, Psychoanalysis and Subjectivity. The Self in Analysis: A Post-modern Account. Jungian Constructivism and the Value of Uncertainty. Part 2: Gender and Desire. Myth and Body: Pandora's Legacy in a Postmodern World. Feminism and Narrating Female Persons. The Female Person and How We Talk About Her. Revisiting Indentity. Gender and Contrasexuality: Jung's Contribution and Beyond. Part 3: Transference and Transformation. What's Love Got to Do With It? Transference and Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. The Transformation of Human Suffering: A Perspective from Psychotherapy and Buddhism. When the Fruit Ripens: Alleviating Suffering and Increasing Compassion as Goals of Clinical Psychoanalysis. Part 4: Transcendence and Subjectivity. Psychotherapy as Ordinary Transcendence. Compassion as Resilience and Transcendence. Locating the Transcendent: Inference, Rupture, Irony. Self and Transcendence: A Post-Modern Approach. From Myth to Metaphor: Transcending Realism.