As a theory of thought, psychoanalysis could not ignore the fundamental problem of man’s relationship with death, not only as a biological fact, but also as a psychological experience. Through the devastation of war, the terror of certain ideologies, and the outbursts of self-destructive acts, psychoanalytic discourse has sought to understand how the human psyche operates upon, and is driven by, forces of friendship and enmity. The harshness of a punitive dimension within us, determined by unconscious guilt; sadomasochistic processes; the action of a self-destructive impulse, at times silent, sometimes blatant, revealed to S. Freud the antinomy to which the human psyche is subject: life processes – processes that oppose life.
We are called upon to think beyond this.
- Pages: 100
- ISBN: 978-960-8399-50-1
- Publication: 2007
- Categories: Books, Humanities & Social Sciences, Ψυχολογία
Anna Potamianou
Anna Potamianou was a Doctor of Philosophy and a Fellow of the International Council of Psychologists. Her clinical and theoretical work covers many areas of psychoanalysis, with a particular focus on borderline and psychosomatic organisations, trauma, identifications and aesthetics. A training analyst with the Paris Psychoanalytic Society and the Hellenic Psychoanalytic Society, she served on the Executive Committee of the International Psychoanalytical Association.
She was a member of the Paris Psychosomatic Institute and served as vice-president of the International Psychosomatic Association. He founded, organised and directed the Centre for Mental Health and Research (1956–1968 and 1994–1998). He served as president of the Hellenic Psychoanalytic Society (1998–2002) and of numerous Greek and international societies.
He published eight books, three monographs and contributed to the publication of 17 edited volumes. He has published a large number of articles in foreign and Greek journals.
He was honoured with the Medals of the Greek Resistance and the French Red Cross, as well as with distinctions from the Academy of Athens and the Friends of the Greek Red Cross.
