Originally published 1966 | ||
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Preceded by Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature Followed by Development of Personality Similar Carl Jung books, Analytical psychology books | ||
Practice of Psychotherapy is Volume 16 in The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, a series of books published by Princeton University Press in the U.S. and Routledge & Kegan Paul in the U.K. It contains essays on aspects of analytical therapy, specifically the transference, abreaction, and dream analysis. There is also an additional essay, "The Realities of Practical Psychotherapy", which was found among Jung's posthumous papers.
The book brings together Jung's essays on general questions of analytic therapy and dream analysis. It also contains his profoundly interesting parallel between the transference phenomena and alchemical processes. The transference is illustrated and interpreted with a set of symbolic pictures, and the bond between psychotherapist and patient is shown to be a function of the kinship libido. Far from being pathological in its effects, kinship libido has an essential role to play in the work of individuation and in establishing an organic society based on the psychic connection of its members with one another and with their own roots.
Detailed abstracts of each chapter are available online.