Paperback : £34.64
Winner of the Clinical catergory of the American Board & Academy of Psychoanalysis Book Prize for best books published in 2016
Nourishing the Inner Life of Clinicians and Humanitarians: The Ethical Turn in Psychoanalysis, demonstrates the demanding, clinical and humanitarian work that psychotherapists often undertake with fragile and devastated people, those degraded by violence and discrimination. In spite of this, Donna M. Orange argues that there is more to human nature than a relentlessly negative view. Drawing on psychoanalytic and philosophical resources, as well as stories from history and literature, she explores ethical narratives that ground hope in human goodness and shows how these voices, personal to each analyst, can become sources of courage, warning and support, of prophetic challenge and humility which can inform and guide their work. Over the course of a lifetime, the sources change, with new ones emerging into importance, others receding into the background.
Donna Orange uses examples from ancient Rome (Marcus Aurelius), from twentieth century Europe (Primo Levi, Emmanuel Levinas, Dietrich Bonhoeffer), from South Africa (Nelson Mandela), and from nineteenth century Russia (Fyodor Dostoevsky). She shows how not only can their words and examples, like those of our personal mentors, inspire and warn us; but they also show us the daily discipline of spiritual self-care, although these examples rely heavily on the discipline of spiritual reading, other practitioners will find inspiration in music, visual arts, or elsewhere and replenish the resources regularly.
Nourishing the Inner Life of Clinicians and Humanitarians will help psychoanalysts to develop a language with which to converse about ethics and the responsibility of the therapist/analyst. This is an exceptional contribution highly suitable for practitioners and students of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.
Show moreWinner of the Clinical catergory of the American Board & Academy of Psychoanalysis Book Prize for best books published in 2016
Nourishing the Inner Life of Clinicians and Humanitarians: The Ethical Turn in Psychoanalysis, demonstrates the demanding, clinical and humanitarian work that psychotherapists often undertake with fragile and devastated people, those degraded by violence and discrimination. In spite of this, Donna M. Orange argues that there is more to human nature than a relentlessly negative view. Drawing on psychoanalytic and philosophical resources, as well as stories from history and literature, she explores ethical narratives that ground hope in human goodness and shows how these voices, personal to each analyst, can become sources of courage, warning and support, of prophetic challenge and humility which can inform and guide their work. Over the course of a lifetime, the sources change, with new ones emerging into importance, others receding into the background.
Donna Orange uses examples from ancient Rome (Marcus Aurelius), from twentieth century Europe (Primo Levi, Emmanuel Levinas, Dietrich Bonhoeffer), from South Africa (Nelson Mandela), and from nineteenth century Russia (Fyodor Dostoevsky). She shows how not only can their words and examples, like those of our personal mentors, inspire and warn us; but they also show us the daily discipline of spiritual self-care, although these examples rely heavily on the discipline of spiritual reading, other practitioners will find inspiration in music, visual arts, or elsewhere and replenish the resources regularly.
Nourishing the Inner Life of Clinicians and Humanitarians will help psychoanalysts to develop a language with which to converse about ethics and the responsibility of the therapist/analyst. This is an exceptional contribution highly suitable for practitioners and students of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.
Show morePreface
Chapter 1 Trauma and Traumatism
Chapter 2 Radical Responsibility and Clinical Hospitality
Chapter 3 Is Ethics Masochism? Infinite Ethical Responsibility and Finite Human Capacity
Chapter 4 Philosophy as a Way of Life
Chapter 5 Witness to Indignity: Primo Levi
Chapter 6 Substitution: Mandela and Bonhoeffer
Chapter 7 Dostoevsky: Ethics as Optics
Chapter 8 Clinical and Humanitarian Work as Prophetic Word
Chapter 9 From Contrite Fallibilism to Humility: Clinical, Personal, and Humanitarian
Acknowledgements
Index
Donna M. Orange teaches, consults, and offers study groups for psychoanalysts and gestalt therapists. She seeks to integrate contemporary psychoanalysis with radically relational ethics. Recent books are Thinking for Clinicians: Philosophical Resources for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and the Humanistic Psychotherapies (2010), and The Suffering Stranger: Hermeneutics for Everyday Clinical Practice (2011), both from Routledge.
In this beautifully written and deeply moving new book, Donna
Orange has once again provided us all with a an emotionally
touching, intellectually stimulating, and ethically compelling,
philosophically informed but clinically applied treatise. In her
prophetic call to live life in the service of the other,
"other-wise," she addresses the critical protestation that such a
set of values enacts the helper's masochism and excessive
self-sacrifice. Orange's book will help newer therapists become
oriented within a pragmatic and humanitarian framework, and will
provide the right balance of disturbing challenge and compassionate
comfort for the most experienced clinicians. - Lewis Aron, Ph.D.
director, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy
& Psychoanalysis.To read Donna Orange’s book is to be disrupted.
Our humanitarian work, she points out, demands of us that we take
up the suffering of those who we meet, it demands more of us than
we can possible provide. Our ‘prophetic (justice-seeking)’ work is
never enough, never complete. And yet, at the same time, I am
nourished and sustained by Orange's reminder of the profundity of
the therapeutic meetings that call for my presence. She describes
her sustaining ‘inner choristers.’ Her book will be one of mine. -
Lynne Jacobs, - Lynne Jacobs, Co-founder, Pacific Gestalt
Institute, Supervising and Training Analyst, Institute of
Contemporary Analysis.
In this beautifully written and deeply moving new book, Donna
Orange has once again provided us all with a an emotionally
touching, intellectually stimulating, and ethically compelling,
philosophically informed but clinically applied treatise. In her
prophetic call to live life in the service of the other,
"other-wise," she addresses the critical protestation that such a
set of values enacts the helper's masochism and excessive
self-sacrifice. Orange's book will help newer therapists become
oriented within a pragmatic and humanitarian framework, and will
provide the right balance of disturbing challenge and compassionate
comfort for the most experienced clinicians. - Lewis Aron, Ph.D.
director, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy
& Psychoanalysis.To read Donna Orange’s book is to be disrupted.
Our humanitarian work, she points out, demands of us that we take
up the suffering of those who we meet, it demands more of us than
we can possible provide. Our ‘prophetic (justice-seeking)’ work is
never enough, never complete. And yet, at the same time, I am
nourished and sustained by Orange's reminder of the profundity of
the therapeutic meetings that call for my presence. She describes
her sustaining ‘inner choristers.’ Her book will be one of mine. -
Lynne Jacobs, - Lynne Jacobs, Co-founder, Pacific Gestalt
Institute, Supervising and Training Analyst, Institute of
Contemporary Analysis.Orange's book marks the completion of a
trilogy that has, in part, explored the implications of Levinas's
ethical philosophy for clinical practice... This most recent work,
however, addresses the inevitable concern and discomfort with the
language of this ethics, especially within the context of clinical
practice... Orange's present work addresses this very concern,
maintaining her endorsement of Levinasian ethics while also paying
special heed to our limitations and needs for nourishment along the
arduous journey of clinical practice... As in her previous works,
Orange has communicated complex philosophical ideas with dexterity
and clarity. Graduate students and seasoned professionals alike can
find this work enriching and inspring. Her writing style mirrors
the ideas she promotes, displaying notable sincerity as she
non-dogmatically reveals her own internal polyphony that... largely
produces a mellifluous harmony of ispirational figures. It
challenges the reader to take on the Levinasian call for infinite
responsibility while also inviting us to explore literary sources
to nourish our inner lives. It is recommended especially for
practicing clinicans seeking to augment their moral vocabulary and
for understanding their work within the context of a higher ethical
calling. -Brian W. Becker, Lesley University, PsycCritiques“But the
amazing density of this book, coming in at under 200 pages, and the
force of her personal and ‘borrowed’ conviction, obliges therapists
of all kinds, in powerful and decisive ways, to look at themselves
and strive to practise humility, humanity and heroism.” - Mark
Mahemoff, MA, Individual and Couple Therapist, Private Practice
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