Playing at Work offers a thorough guide to the innovative
psychoanalytic practices of Vincenzo Bonaminio, as he draws on the work
of Winnicott, Bollas, and Tustin to demonstrate an effective method for
working with adults, adolescents, and children in clinical settings.
Using several clinical cases, the book explores central psychoanalytic
concepts such as transference and countertransference, identity and
self, embodiment, anxiety, and the role of parental influence on psychic
development. By providing extended commentary on his case material,
Bonaminio illustrates the significance of writing about clinical
practice to the development of techniques that address patients' varying
needs. Simultaneously, this text offers a method that cultivates each
patient's capacity for intuition and the use of metaphor to form their
own interpretations, and thereby invests a sense of freedom into the
analytic situation.
By its deeply reflective insights, and its emphasis on the contribution
made by the analyst as an active participant in the therapeutic
situation, Playing at Work forms essential reading for all practicing
psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists who wish to improve
their clinical practice with patients of any age.