On Psychoanalysis, Disillusion, and Death

Antonie Ladan is in private practice as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Zeist, the Netherlands. He is a full member of the International Psychoanalytical Association and a training and supervising analyst at the Dutch Psychoanalytical Society and the Dutch Psychoanalytical Association.

• Introduction. On the Yearning not to be Disillusioned.On the Analyst as a "Disillusionist".On the Illusion of an Autonomous Psychoanalysis. On Illusions in Relationships. On the Illusion of Togetherness. On the Illusion that the Analytic Relationship is an Ordinary One. On the Disillusion of Actual Death.

"In this truly wonderful book, filled with clearly articulated wisdom and rich clinical illustration, Antonie Ladan presents invaluable observations about how effective psychoanalytic treatment works. He focuses on the intricate process whereby skilled analysts painstakingly help their patients accept disillusion of their "dead certainty" that their analyst will relate to them in accordance with the fantasy of what they can expect of people, embedded in implicit memory, that justifies the self-defeating patterns to which they cling in misguided desperation. It is must reading for all mental health professionals, at every level of training and experience."- Martin A. Silverman, MD, is: Training and Supervising Analyst at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Education affiliated with NYU School of Medicine and Associate Editor and Book Review Editor of The Psychoanalytic Quarterly."This is an important book, one that offers an original and illuminating perspective on psychoanalytic treatment. By focusing on the roles of illusion, disillusionment and death in psychoanalysis, issues that are rarely discussed in our literature, Antonie Ladan makes an invaluable contribution to our field." -Theodore J. Jacobs, M.D., Training and Supervising Analyst, New York Psychoanalytic Institute and The Institute for Psychoanalytic Education.