Introduction to Understanding Psychopathology: A Psychoanalytic Perspective by Ivan Sherick

PREFACE

Formerly, I’ve written books on development throughout the life cycle, “Introduction to Child, Adolescent, and Adult Development:  A Psychoanalytic perspective for students and Professionals,” and on clinical technique with people of all ages “Psychoanalytic Technique with Children, Adolescents, and Adults: An introduction for Students and Professionals.” Both of these books were written as introductions to the respective topics from a psychoanalytic perspective, with students and beginning professionals in mind as potential readers.  Neither was a scholarly written book with references embedded in the text, nor with footnotes. A list of references was included at the end of these books, so that interested readers could immerse themselves more thoroughly in the topics. Technical terms were defined and the tone of these books was intended to be welcoming and not intimidating. The following book on psychopathology is written with the same goals as the above-mentioned books.

This book on the topic of psychopathology from a psychoanalytic perspective is not meant to be an all-encompassing exposition on the topic. Rather, it is meant to be an introduction. My psychoanalytic orientation is a contemporary ego psychology.  Thus, it is classical but has integrated contemporary revisions that advance our thinking.

Please keep in mind that the term “psychopathology” is not meant by me to connote something ominous, malignant, or life threatening such as cancer or coronary problems. That is NOT what I am speaking about. The inclusion of the term “pathology” unfortunately may mean something biological and diseased to you. As a psychoanalyst my interest is in the mind and in feelings, not the brain. For example, when I talk about a depressed feeling I am not thinking of a biologically caused depression but one that is reactive to a disappointment. What is disappointing to one person is trivial to another.  It is very subjective and based on one’s life experiences and one’s wishes, either attainable or fantastic.  What I am mainly going to write about are the kinds of mental conflicts that evoke feelings and possible psychological disturbances that are common among almost all people.  In fact, psychoanalysts often refer to non-patients including themselves as “normally neurotic.”

On the other hand, I do not mean to minimize the degree of discomfort that mental conflict can cause many people.  Obviously, it can be intense enough that an individual will seek professional help, or regretfully, contemplate suicide.

I will not be discussing the Autism spectrum, Asperger syndrome, or Psychosis.  I have no experience with patients dealing with these diagnostic Issues.  The first two are very likely due to some kind of organicity and do not get referred to psychoanalysts.  There are some analysts who have specialized in working with psychotic patients, but I am not one of them.

Occasionally, I will address a particular issue more than once insofar as it is important throughout the life cycle.  Sometimes in the narrative I use the accepted contemporary convention when the gender of a subject is unknown, e.g., “parent”, the pronoun “they” and the possessive “their”, instead of “he or “she” and “his” or “her”.