Primitive Agony and Symbolization

Reviews / Votes

'Deeply rooted in the French tradition, Roussillon is an analyst and author with an independent mind, willing to embrace diversity while not falling into unprincipled eclecticism. This book is highly representative of his whole endeavour as an author: a creative, personal integration of Freudian metapsychology with Winnicott's clinical and theoretical landscape. This makes for an original contribution to contemporary psychoanalytic thinking.'- Dominique Scarfone, MD, full professor in the Department of Psychology, Universite de Montreal; training and supervising analyst, Societe et Institut psychanalytique de Montreal (French branches of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society and Institute)'Rousillon invites us, firstly, to explore the nature of the primary agonies, and to examine the processes of symbolization which allow the subject to proceed to the subjective appropriation of what is lived. Secondly, to create a dialogue with authors whose contributions he considers meaningful, specially basing himself on D. W. Winnicott for the analysis of the primary agonies, but also taking into account contributions from other authors, from Sandor Ferenczi to Daniel Stern and writers in the neurosciences. Rousillon's proposals will have an unquestionable interest for those who are willing to explore the bridges that his book, from a firm metapsychological base, intends to establish with the new realities and challenges that open both from inside and outside psychoanalysis.'- Ricardo Bernardi, PhD, full member and Training Analyst of the Uruguayan Psychoanalytical Association, Professor of the Uruguayan School of Medicine and School of Psychology, Latin American Editor of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis