Hanna Segal: A Contemporary Introduction

By Annie Pesskin

In this engaging book, Annie Pesskin provides a comprehensive introduction to Hanna Segal and her work as a clinician, analyst, supervisor and original psychoanalytic theoretician.

Pesskin highlights the vital role Segal played in bringing the ideas of Melanie Klein to a wider audience, and how she furthered Kleinian thought through her own clinical innovations. The book explores Segal's highly influential work on symbolism and the development of her best-known contribution, the symbolic equation, which distinguished between true symbolic thinking and the concrete thinking found in psychotic states. Pesskin examines Segal's contributions across diverse areas including dreaming, aesthetics, creativity, war and group dynamics, as well as her development of the Freud/Klein/Bion model of the mind. Through vivid clinical material and clear theoretical exposition, the book demonstrates how Segal's ideas about unconscious phantasy, the death instinct, and the therapeutic process continue to shape contemporary psychoanalytic practice.

Hanna Segal: A Contemporary Introduction is invaluable for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists in practice and training seeking to deepen their understanding of object relations theory and post-Kleinian thought. It is also essential for students of psychoanalytic studies, mental health professionals and those interested in the development of British psychoanalysis.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1041110804
• ISBN13: 9781041110804
• Release Date: April 2027
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 126 Pages