Dr Jo O'Reilly is a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst working in an inner city Mental Health Trust as a consultant medical psychotherapist. Drawing on her clinical experience working across a range of psychiatric settings she has developed a keen interest in the application of psychoanalytic ideas within psychiatry and the difference this can make in enriching clinical understanding and patient care.
Suggested Reading:
Segal,H. (1957). A Psychoanalytic Approach to the Treatment of Psychosis. In The Work of Hannah Segal: A Kleinian Approach to Clinical Practice (pp131-136). New York. Aronson.
Further Reading:
Freud, S. (1911a). Psychoanalytic Notes on an autobiographical account of a case of paranoia ( Dementia paranoids). In Standard Edition 12( pp3-79)
Segal, H. (1957). Notes on Symbol Formation. In The Work of Hannah Segal: A Kleinian Approach to Clinical Practice (pp49-65). New York: Jason Aronson Chapter 4 (49 – 65pp.)
Lucas, R. (2009) The Psychotic Wavelength. A Psychoanalytic Perspective for Psychiatry. The New Library of Psychoanalysis. Routledge
Evans, M. (2016). Making Room for Madness in Mental Health. The Tavistock Clinic Series
Brief Outline of Lecture:
Inherent to Psychoanalysis is the quest for meaning and understanding of psychological distress. This talk describes a psychoanalytic approach to understanding psychosis. I discuss how psychotic anxieties are intrinsic to normal psychological development using observation of the emotional turmoil of infancy. The intensity of these experiences can persist into adulthood and re-emerge in psychiatric breakdown as psychotic symptoms. I illustrate this with clinical vignettes from psychiatric services. The impact of such psychotic processes on staff is also considered.