27/10/2025
*New release from The New Library of Psychoanalysis!*
Mapping the Landscape: Explorations in Psychoanalysis by Priscilla Roth
Edited by Ignês Sodré and Tomasz Fortuna with a preface by John Steiner
To order the book, click here:
https://ow.ly/9vOR50XbWna
An excerpt from Chapter 1 about enactments:
“When this happens, as it does in every analysis, the most important interpretation the analyst will make is to himself; in the Giovacchini example, he might ask himself, ‘Why do I find myself repeatedly pushing the patient into a corner? Why am I pressing my questions on her?’ Having dealt with that in his own mind, he is then much freer to consider how to address his patient. He might, for example, in some situations, say something like, ‘We seem to have arrived at a situation in which I am repeatedly pursuing you, or pushing you into a corner in a way that frightens you, like in your dream’.
For the purposes of this paper, I don't want to go into how such an impasse comes about, or whose fault it is. It is essential for every analyst to think about who is pulling whom into the action, but what I want to focus on here is the different levels that are operating simultaneously—because as analysts we have to choose the most useful place to intervene.”
