Psychic Bisexuality: A British-French Dialogue

Reviews & Endorsements

American Board & Academy of Psychoanalysis 2019 Book Prize for Best Edited Book:

“On Behalf of the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis (ABAPsa), I wish to extend our congratulations to the winners of the 2019 Book Awards. As ever, and from our previous announcement of the finalists, one could easily discern that the competition was very keen, making the task of the Committee reviewing and deciding on the finalists and ultimate winners, a very daunting task, indeed. However, this is ultimately heartening, in that it appears there is indeed a healthy, vibrant community of psychoanalytical scholars, contributing their insights, hypotheses, findings, and results, from a broad spectrum of psychoanalytical paradigmatic positions. Additionally, we are appreciative of those publishers that continue to go against the publishing grain, and publish psychoanalytical texts for our broad community of scholar-practitioners.”

Sincerely,

David L Downing, PsyD, ABPP, FAPA
Chairperson, ABAPsa Book Awards Committee Chairperson

“This book is precise and intense, engaging and illuminating. To say that we are all bisexual does not dismiss the psychoanalytic recognition of sexual difference and does not replace it with the phantasy—nowadays increasingly common—of a ‘neutral’ gender. The notion of psychic bisexuality as developed in this profound book recognizes the incompleteness of masculinity and femininity and the conflict inherent in desire. The speaking individual continuously adjusts their sexuality to the subtleties of their own desires and those of the other. Perelberg’s introduction is both brilliant and indispensable; the detailed and nuancedclinical examples open up a space for intimacy, within which psychic bisexuality can be expressed and reinvent itself.”

– Julia Kristeva, Training Analyst of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society and Professor Emeritus at the University Paris Diderot. Holberg Prize for outstanding contributions to research in the arts and humanities.

“This is a remarkable book; it celebrates and develops further Freud’s seminal insights on sexuality. The chapters, so aptly gathered and meticulously discussed by Rosine Perelberg, cohere around a search for a deeper understanding of psychic bisexuality, and examine with detailed clinical examples the centrality of this concept to the understanding of the feminine, the masculine, hysteria, psychosis, maternal and paternal transference, castration, and the the primal scene. I strongly recommend this wonderful book, both to analysts in training and to seasoned ones. It is a real gem, contemporary, intellectually stimulating, and a pleasure to read.”

– Claudio Eizirik, Training Analyst of the Brazilian Psychoanalytical Society of Porto Alegre and Past-President of the International Psychoanalytic Association.