Thomas Rosbrow

Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California · Psychoanalysis

In this paper I explore how Haruki Murakami depicts in profound and original images and nested stories the experience of traumatic dissociation and recovery. Murakami has an uncanny ability as a “waking dreamer” to capture and narratively elaborate core imagery. In his writings, he has examined the significance of imagination and dreaming in a pers...

In this paper I will describe my experiences with several patients who struggled with a common problem. All of them adults in midlife, they entered therapy after the traumatic loss of a highly idealized figure in their lives. The figure might be a therapist, but has also been a spiritual teacher or a lover. What is common is the person’s experience...

In her searching paper “Going Too Far: Relational Heroines and Relational Excess,” (this issue) Slochower finds the potential for excess as inherent in any psychoanalytic theory. I argue that context is key in understanding this phenomenon within relational psychoanalysis; what she describes may not be the case for other theories. The beginnings of...

Peskin, in his last paper (this issue), proposes a wide relational framework for understanding the roots and contexts of painful, unresolved mourning. In Freud, the work of the mourner takes place solely in the person’s inner world and reflects the mix of feelings the person had toward the loved one. Peskin describes a specific family dynamic which...

Peskin, in his last paper, proposes a wide relational framework for understanding the roots and contexts of painful, unresolved mourning . In Freud, the work of the mourner takes place solely in the person’s inner world, and reflects the mix of feelings the person had towards the loved one. Peskin describes a specific family dynamic which influence...

In her generous and full discussion of my paper, Doris Brothers writes about patient's efforts to restore themselves following trauma and how that runs into walls caused by their “systemically emergent certainties.” She beautifully writes, “Since our capacity to hope depends on being able to tolerate uncertainty we sometimes join our patients in th...

Reviews the book, Understanding transference: The CCRT method by Lester Luborsky and Paul Crits-Cristoph (1990). Understanding transference: The CCRT method presents a detailed overview of the research of Lester Luborsky, Paul Crits-Christoph, and their colleagues at the Penn Center for Psychotherapy Treatment and Research. Luborsky is one of the...

Compares the assertions of J. Weiss et al (1986) regarding the role of the patient's unconscious plan in analytic treatment with other contemporary theories. According to Weiss et al, the analyst listens, albeit unconsciously, to the patient with respect for the patient's capacity to spell out his or her goals, the blocks to achieving these goals,...

Typescript. Thesis--Adelphi University. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-74). Photocopy. Ann Arbor, Mich., University Microfilms International, 1980. (8012522) -- 21 cm.