Dark feelings will haunt us until they are expressed in words
Continued mental growth requires dealing with alexithymia, or the inability to express emotions through words or images
by Tom Wooldridge
Psychoanalysis and the unconscious
For Donald Winnicott, the psyche is not inside us but between us
For Donald Winnicott, your psyche isn’t just in your head – it emerges from your relationships with others and the world
by James Barnes
Three ways to get in touch with your Shadow self
Jung believed we all have a Shadow self. Facing up to it could help you live more fully and be more forgiving of others
by Ruth Williams
How to stop emotional eating
Whether compelled by an inner void, loneliness or boredom, psychoanalysis can help you understand why you seek comfort in food
by Nina Savelle-Rocklin
To learn from a psychedelic trip, explore the dreams that follow
Psychedelic experiences, properly digested, offer opportunities for change – and the dreams that follow them can help
by Mackenzie Amara
How a Viennese genius (not the one you think) understood penis envy
Karen Horney’s challenge to Freudian psychosexual theory helped me say ‘penis’ without flinching in my Cairo classroom
by Heba Yosry
For Jung, architecture was a tool to represent the psyche
Carl Jung’s approach to architecture is a provocation: how are we creating spaces for the forgotten dimensions of our minds?
by David Borkenhagen
The power of slow therapy, revealed in two pioneering memoirs
Two therapy memoirs by Lucy Freeman, an overlooked mental health pioneer, remind us of the value of slow, convoluted therapy
by Elliot Jurist
My failed analysis gave me confidence and taught me when to quit
What does successful psychoanalysis look like? I’d read all around Freud and I didn’t know, but then neither did my analyst
by Lisa Levy
Men’s anxiety about hair loss can have a deeper meaning
As a psychoanalyst, I’ve seen how reflecting on the emotional symbolism of hair loss can be therapeutic for many men
by Tom Wooldridge
Can we diagnose suffering without knowing a person’s history?
Human bodies and mental states are always transforming. How can the DSM portray the full range of human suffering?
by Christos Tombras
Either/or questions are part of psychotherapy’s language games
When a patient poses a binary question, it’s tempting to give a straight answer, but they are often seeking so much more
by Darren Haber
The violence of suicide reverberates in, and through, us all
A psychodynamic perspective on suicide can help us all reckon more honestly with the interconnectedness of psychic pain
by Kyle Boyd
Why bad doodles can reveal more about you than good drawings
For Marion Milner, ‘not being able’ is a valuable state – one that allows for new and unexpected forms of learning
by David Russell
My take on ‘Venus in Furs’ as a modern-day dominatrix
My experiences as a 21st-century femdom echo the gendered themes that feature in Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novel
by Gia Marcos