Minding the Body - The body in psychoanalysis and beyond

Minding the Body: The Body in Psychoanalysis and Beyond outlines the value of a psychoanalytic approach to understanding the body and its vicissitudes and for addressing these in the context of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. The chapters cover a broad but esoteric range of subjects that are not often discussed within psychoanalysis such as the function of breast augmentation surgery, the psychic origins of hair, the use made of the analyst''s toilet, transsexuality and the connection between dermatological conditions and necrophilic fantasies. The book also reaches ''beyond the couch'' to consider the nature of reality television makeover show.

The book is based on the Alessandra Lemma''s extensive clinical experience as a psychoanalyst and psychologist working in a range of public and private health care settings with patients for whom the body is the primary presenting problem or who have made unconscious use of the body to communicate their psychic