The Abandonment Neurosis

First published in 1950, La nevrose d'abandon was and still is a ground-breaking work. Guex's research turns on two clinical observations: the frequent occurrence of analysands whose neurotic symptoms are unrecognizable when measured against any of the Freudian diagnostic models, and the relatively large number of these patients who sought help from her, having already undergone thorough classically Freudian treatments with analysts whose abilities were never in question, but whose efforts did nothing to relieve patient suffering.What all these subjects had in common, Guex observed, were extme and debilitating feelings of abandonment, insecurity and lack of self-worth, originally ignited by severe pre-oedipal trauma. Having described the neurosis of abandonment, Guex goes on to outline every diagnostic tool and treatment methodology, developed over many years, which can be deployed in the successful and lasting eradication of this pervasive neurosis.Despite its trail-blazing research and ideas, Guex's book never received the accolades or attention it deserved. Now, translated into English for the first time by Peter D. Douglas, it is brought to a new and wider audience, for whom the ideas it explores are just as relevant and significant today.