Siblings

'This collection of papers superbly illustrates the complexity of sibling relationships as they unravel in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and also demonstrates how therapeutic the work can be. For psychoanalysis the key question is whether siblings demand an additional paradigm to the child-parent vertical axis with which so far they have been amalgamated? Without this, siblings are potentially both nowhere as autonomous entities within psychoanalytic theory and everywhere in the clinical work. These papers contribute magnificently to an understanding of the everywhere from which the nowhere may, or may not, become somewhere .' - Juliet Mitchell, a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society and the International Psychoanalytical Association, Professor of Psychoanalysis and Gender Studies at Cambridge University, Director of the Expanded Doctoral School in Psychoanalytic Studies at the Psychoanalysis Unit of University College London and author of Siblings: Sex and Violence'In my daily work as a psychoanalyst I repeatedly observe that being the sole child can create as many problems for the patient as having siblings. Besides the oedipal and the mother-child relationships, there is definitely a place in psychoanalytic theory for siblings' relationships. The role of siblinghood is not restricted to a negative one (such as the story of Cain and Abel), it may also be positive in facilitating the consolidation of the narcissism and the building up of the I, of the subject. This book is a challenging and welcome attempt at filling a gap, covering a wide scope of interesting theoretical and clinical issues.'- Professor Francois Ladame, psychoanalyst (Societe Suisse de Psychanalyse), psychiatrist, and author of Les Eternels Adolescents: Comment Devenir AdulteContributors: Ewa Back, Rachel Blass, Francesco Bisagni, Deborah Blessing, Daniela Cantone, Prophecy Coles, Rossella Coveri, Francoise Daune, Evalotta Enekvist, Anna Faber, Carmela Guerriera, Michael D. Kahn, Lech Kalita, Alison Knight-Evans, Beata Maciejewska-Sobczak, Jeanne Magagna, Sarah Mandow, Miriam Monticelli, Maria Papagounou, Joanna Skowronska, Katarzyna Skrzypek, Zuzanna Stadnicka-Dmitriew, Nancy Taloumi, Agnieszka Topolewska, Sabine Trenk-Hinterberger, Franz Wellendorf, Marie-Ange Widdershoven, Chava Yanai-Malach