In The Unconscious: A Contemporary Introduction, Joseph Newirth presents a critical and comparative analysis of the unconscious and its evolution from a positivist to a postmodern frame of reference.
This book presents five theories, each of which offers different and important conceptualizations of the unconscious, and each of which contains a rich palate of ideas through which to approach clinical work. These psychoanalytic theories are thought of as spokes on a wheel emanating from the center of Freud-s concept of the unconscious. In addition to presenting Freud-s development of the unconscious, Newirth includes discussions of Interpersonal/Relational psychoanalysis; developmental approaches to the unconscious, including Kohut, Winnicott, and Fonagy; Kleinian approaches to the unconscious; and linguistic theories of the unconscious including Matte Blanco and Lacan. The last chapter illustrates the use of contemporary psychoanalytic concepts in the clinical work with
