Using the theatre as a central metaphor, this text provides a flexible framework to explore the psychic realities of the characters within us. Case studies underscore how different kinds of patients construct particular fantasies as a response to the pain of earlier life scenarios.
Prologue; Chapter 1 Static and Ec-static States: Reflections on the Psychoanalytic Process; Chapter 2 Scenes from Psychic Life; Chapter 3 The Transitional Theater and the Search for Players; Chapter 4 The Staging of the Irrepresentable: "A Child Is Being Eaten"; Chapter 5 Psychosomatic States, Anxiety Neurosis, and Hysteria; Chapter 6 Elaboration and Transformation of the Psychic Repertory; Chapter 7 Reflections on Affect: A Psychoanalytic View of Alexithymia; Chapter 8 From Psychosomatosis to Psychoneurosis; Chapter 9 Theater in the Round: Thoughts on the Economy of Narcissism; Chapter 10 The Narcissistic Stage and the Role of Archaic Sexuality; Chapter 11 Neosexualities; Chapter 12 Scenes of Fantasy, Delusion, and Death; Epilogue; Index;
