A Brief Introduction to Psychoanalytic Theory

  • Textbook
A Brief Introduction to Psychoanalytic Theory cover

A Brief Introduction to Psychoanalytic Theory

  • Textbook
Quantity
Available on Feb 05 2026
$49.95

Available for purchase via Bloomsbury etextbooks on publication date

This title is available for exam copy requests

Description

This introduction to psychoanalytic theory explores the birth of psychoanalysis and gives an account of fundamental psychoanalytic concepts.

This updated edition:

- Explores the birth of psychoanalysis, taking the reader step by step through Freud's original ideas and how they evolved
- Gives an account of fundamental psychoanalytic concepts
- Discusses the different schools of psychoanalysis that have emerged since Freud
- Illustrates the wider applications of psychoanalytic ideas across film, literature and politics.

Psychoanalytic theory remains hugely important for understanding the mind and human behaviour. It provides a rich source of ideas for therapeutic practice while offering dramatic insights for the study of culture and society.

Written by an authority on psychoanalysis, this book is essential reading for trainees in counselling and psychotherapy, as well as for students across the arts, humanities and social sciences. The 2nd edition includes up-to-date material and develops the book's coverage of social and cultural implications of psychoanalysis.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition

PART ONE: FREUDIAN THEORY
Chapter 1: The Appeal of Psychoanalysis
Chapter 2: Main Schools of Psychoanalysis
Chapter 3: What Freud was Trying to Do
Chapter 4: The Freudian Unconscious
Chapter 5: Sex, aggression, life and death
Chapter 6: Repression and Other Defences
Chapter 7: The Structure of the Mind: id, ego, superego.
Chapter 8: Oedipus, Masculinity, Femininity
Chapter 9: Psychopathology: What Makes Us Sad (and Mad)

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENTS IN PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Chapter 10: Psychoanalysts after Freud
Chapter 11: Attachment, Mentalisation and Neuropsychoanalysis
Chapter 12: The Principles of Object Relations Theory
Chapter 13: Mourning, Melancholia, Loss and Trauma
Chapter 14: The Paranoid-Schizoid Position and Other Extremes
Chapter 15: Projection and Psychosis
Chapter 16: Imaginary, Symbolic and Real: Lacanian psychoanalysis

PART THREE: THEORY OF THERAPY
Chapter 17: Interpretation and Transference
Chapter 18: Countertransference and Intersubjectivity

PART FOUR: WIDER APPLICATIONS
Chapter 19: Psychoanalysis, Film and Literature
Chapter 20: Politics and Society
Chapter 21: Class, Gender and Race

Conclusion
Recommended Reading

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published Feb 05 2026
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 2nd
Extent 224
ISBN 9781350534087
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Stephen Frosh

Stephen Frosh has recently retired as Professor in…

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