Psychoanalytic Complexity

William Coburn's Psychoanalytic Complexity is a stunning contribution to the development of a new, post-Cartesian conceptual language for psychoanalysis, one that decisively parts company with the doctrine of the isolated, individual mind. Instead, human experience is understood as forever embedded in and constituted by complex intersubjective contexts and systems. The language of complexity theory is rich, evocative, and varied, and to follow Coburn's ideas is to be opened up to new ways of thinking about all the fundamental issues of psychoanalytic theory and psychotherapy. This work will be indispensable to all students and scholars who are interested in the most creative transformations that are occurring in our field. - George Atwood, Professor of Psychology (Emeritus), Rutgers University This book will change your practice for the better! Coburn guides us through the non-linear dynamic systems theories with grace and clarity, offering a set of working principles that capture what we actually do and feel every day. These concepts have often seemed obscure, but here they come alive: Coburn speaks to the reader right away, and stays there with clinical illustrations, lucid conceptualizations and careful scholarship. Offering an approach that gets beyond the usual psychoanalytic shibboleths, he has taken the application of complexity theory to psychotherapy to the next level. This is the place to start if you want to know why these new models matter for clinical work. - Stephen Seligman, DMH, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Infant-Parent Program, University of California, San Francisco