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In Truth Matters: Theory and Practice in Psychoanalysis , Shlomit Yadlin-Gadot draws philosophical investigations of truth into psychoanalysis with wide ranging implications for both theory and clinical practice. Her ´truth axes´ offer a powerful tool for understanding the mental world as well as for improving psychotherapy.

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In Truth Matters: Theory and Practice in Psychoanalysis , Shlomit Yadlin-Gadot offers an original construal of subjectivity as evolving from dynamic tensions between conflicting truths that inhabit and structure the psyche. The clinical endeavour is articulated in terms of unveiling these truths and allowing the multi-faceted nature of human experience to emerge. Yadlin-Gadot´s notion of truth axes combines philosophical investigation with an in-depth inquiry of psychoanalytic theory as it relates these truths to basic human needs and developmental challenges, alternating self-states and unconscious processes. Detailed clinical vignettes illustrate these insights and enrich psychoanalytic practice with innovative technique.

"This is a brilliant and original work that addresses a much-neglected issue in psychoanalytic thinking, the fundamental role of truth in psychoanalytic theory and practice. The author accomplishes this goal with panache and originality, in a style of exposition that is both accessible and illuminating. This book represents a major achievement in the annals of psychoanalytic scholarship."
Michael Guy Thompson, Author of The Death of Desire (Routledge) and The Truth about Freud´s Technique (New York University Press).

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Introduction

Chapter 1 The Desire for Truth, Its Crisis and Mental Life
The Discussion of Truth: Concepts and Context
Nietzsche, Perspectivism and the ´Desire for Truth´
Analysis of the Absolute in American Pragmatic Philosophy
The Continental Analysis of Truth
An Interim Summary
From Divine to Scientific Truth and Beyond: Freud as Case in study

Chapter 2 Notions of Truth in Philosophy
Six notions of truth
Combined models and influences
Truth and Reality in Epistemological Framework
From Truth Notions to Truth Axes
Truth Axes and Psychological Needs
Truth Axes and Realities

Chapter3 Truth, Meaning and the Psychoanalytic Encounter
Truth and Psychoanalysis
Truth and Semiotics
Clinical Implications of Epistemic Choice
Epistemic Choice vs. Epistemic Multiplicity
From Epistemic Resolution to Epistemic Multiplicity
Truths and Reality in Clinical Discourse

Chapter 4 The Philosophic-Psychoanalytic Interface- Truth Axes and Psychic Development
The Constitution of Truth Axes in the Psyche
Interim Summary
Experiencing Truth Axes
Truth Axes, Grammar and its Autonomy

Chapter 5 Theoretical and Practical Implications
Expressions of Axial Self-States: Firstness, Secondness, Thirdness
Topography in Terms of Truth Axes
The Concept of Self in Psychoanalytic Thinking
The Construal of Self in terms of Truth Axes
The Therapeutic Process and the Axes of Truth
Chapter 6 Clinical Illustrations
Case 1: An Ideal Execution of Love
Case 2: The Gap between Sense and Sensibility in the Text of Clinical Events
Case 3: Paradox
Case 4: Endowing Empathy with Fresh Air
Case 5: Metaphor as a Coercive Agent of Coherence
Case 6: The Fall of Time and Sense in Love
Case 7: Sadomasochistic Defenses against Agency and Choice
Case 8: A Chain Worn Differently across Different Axes
Chapter 7 Translation, Dialectics, Dialogue
Translation
Dialectics
Dialogue
The Self Revisited
Conclusion
Bibliography

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