Search

Humans are weak. Lacking the claws and thick skins of other animals, we are forced to rely on members of our own species to survive and flourish in the world. The fact that the human infant is born in an utterly helpless state also makes others'protective care necessary. Attachment, bonding, concern, and mutuality thus become cornerstones of human existence. Trust also enters this equation. Originating in the early mother-child relationship, trust continues to grow, get contextually refined tempered by reality testing, and gain nuances throughout the subsequent adult life. Its absence (mistrust) or malformation (distrust) contributes to psychopathology and is responsible for much intrapsychic distress and interpersonal strife. Given its formative significance and it crucial role in the therapeutic process, one is surprised by the paucity of psychoanalytic writings specifically devoted to the topic of trust and mistrust. Few, if any, monographs on trust exist. A collection of essays written specifically for this volume, it deals with the ontogenesis, psychopathology, cultural vicissitudes, and technical implications of trust and mistrust.

'Even paranoids have enemies'is the reply Golda Meir is said to have made to Henry Kissinger who, during the 1973 Sinai talks, accused her of being paranoid for hesitating to grant further concessions to the Arabs. It is used as part of the title of this book to highlight the complex relationship between paranoia and persecution.The politics of the Middle East, the pressures within Japanese society, the dynamics of the drug scene, racism, and the effects of mechanical thinking in institutions and cultures all serve to illustrate in this book the intimate connections between paranoia and persecution. Contributors examine the ways in which paranoia and persecution are experienced at the individual, institutional and macrosocial level. They draw on theoretical perspectives from a range of disciplines in an exploration of both the psychological impact of paranoid processes and the extent to which these processes are rooted in political and cultural exigency.

Freud's Paranoid Quest is an exceptionally broad-ranging and well-written book....Whether or not one agrees with certain of his arguments and assessments, one must acknowledge the remarkable intelligence that is displayed on nearly every page.--Louis Sassauthor of Madness and Modernism and The Paradoxes of Delusion John Farrell's Freud's Paranoid Quest is the most trenchant, exhilarating and illuminating book I have encountered in many years. [The book] should be pondered not just by all students of Freud's thought but by everyone who senses that'advanced modernity'has by now outstayed its welcome.--Frederick CrewsUniversity of California, Berkeley In Freud's Paranoid Quest, John Farrell analyzes the personality and thought of Sigmund Freud in order to give insight into modernity's paranoid character and into the true nature of Freudian psychoanalysis. John Farrell's Freud is not the path-breaking psychologist he claimed to be, but the fashioner and prisoner of a total system of suspicion. The most gifted of paranoids, Freud deployed this system as a self-heroizing myth and a compelling historical ideology.