Psychoanalysis in an Age of Accelerating Cultural Change

Altman's book will help clinicians free themselves up to deal with the practicalities of situations... all practitioners interested In the transformation of health care systems will be informed by this book and find it enjoyable reading. - Rebecca C. Curtis, PSycCRITQUES Some might think that psychoanalysis has become an elitist activity - only available to the financially privileged, cut off from the pressing concerns of the majority of those needing help. Neil Altman is a psychoanalyst who would agree.... If any counsellor or psychotherapist is tempted to think that, because `psychoanalysis' is not their field, they can dissociate themselves from Altman's critique, they are mistaken. This is a book for all of us.- Chris Rose, psychotherapist, in Therapy Today Neil Altman's Psychoanalysis in an Age of Accelerating Cultural Change is a must read for all students of the mental health field, psychologists, social workers, psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, mental health professionals, and to anyone in interested in the current state and radical transformation of our health care system. Altman has been a pioneer in exploring and teaching a generation of psychotherapists how to utilize the insights of psychoanalysis for populations who have not heretofore received its benefits, those in our inner cities, the poor, and racial and cultural minorities. In his new book he pushes his teachings further, bringing into the conversation his expertise in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, community-based clinical work, cultural studies, all informed by his important critique of globalization and free market capitalism. Freud and others have called for psychoanalysis to be a psychotherapy for the people, Altman shows us how to get there and inspires us to make it come true. - Lewis Aron, Ph.D. is the director of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis. Altman's book opens our minds to the new cultural and social scenario marked by globalization where mental health professionals work and live today. His deep knowledge of cultural differences and their impact on our lives is now contextualized from his experience both in clinical and community settings. Contemporary psychoanalysis is not only a matter of office based practice, but has opened to the community, and as he says, needs to be practiced there if it is to survive with much social relevance, overcomig its roots in elitism and isolation. Facing a present focus on `evidence based treatments', Altman gives us the opportunity to consider the many proposals and the most influential evidence, cultural and social, where professionals need to learn about opportunities that their countertransference offers in a culture-based practice. - Prof. Alejandro Avila, PhD, Complutense University, Madrid Training member and honorary president of the Institute of Relational Psychotherapy and chair of IARPP's Spanish chapter Neil Altman's words flow with ease and grace as the book acquires a vibrancy nourished by real life illustrations of an involved psychoanalyst. The distinction of this extremely important and timely work lies in its ability to make us sit up and question the social injustice which inheres in the practice of mental health including that of psychoanalysis, psychiatry and all modern visions of managed cure. By invoking the need for community work and a reflexive cultural sensitivity, he urges his colleagues to attend to the emotional needs of those relegated to invisible social peripheries. In times of rising capitalism and increasing globalisation, Neil Altman thus speaks to us from the depths of an awakened conscience and emerges as a unique voice, committed to humanising an engaged and relational psychotherapeutic-psychoanalytical approach. - Honey Oberoi Vahali, Dean, School of Human Studies and Director, Centre of Psychotherapy and Clinical Research, Ambedkar University Delhi, India