'Although this book has been written by a number of authors, the editors have skillfully combined the chapters into a coherent whole. They and the other contributors are to be congratulated on a work of substance and importance - a testimony to the skill of a group of devoted psychoanalytically-orientated psychotherapists in Northern Ireland. This group has developed under the influence of Thomas Freeman, and he deserves special praise for the level of work he has fostered.'- From the Foreword by Joseph Sandler'The field of psychoanalytical studies was formally institutionalized in the United kingdom in 1988, through the higher Education Network for Research and Information in Psychoanalysis and its house journal, The Psychoanalysis Newsletter. The field has yet to be formalized in student textbooks. At present, students are directed to a sizeable and diverse range of books and papers, providing variously demanding treatments of theoretical and applied psychoanalysis. As such, the available literature remains scattered and difficult to assimilate.This book is designed to meet the needs of students who seek, in one volume, a text which places emphasis upon core concepts and clinical material, but which at the same time reflects the range of applications in therapy, and in the psychoanalytic study of culture and society. It is instructive to consider these two dimensions on terms of "centers" and "peripheries" of psychoanalysis. This introductory chapter unpacks the various interrelations between the centers and peripheries concerned, with reference both to the overall standpoint of the book and its individual chapters.'- From the Introduction by Richard Ekins