"Analysts in the Trenches" vividly illustrates what socially engages analysts can offer to violent and disturbed communities.  Espousing an interventionist, group-focused approach, contributors bring analytic expertise to bear on the emotional

The horrific events of 9/11 and its sequelae have reinforced what thoughtful analysts have long known: that they have a responsibility to respond to the complex social and educational issues arising in their communities - to function, that is, as "community psychoanalysts." Analysts in the Trenches vividly illustrates what socially engaged analysts can offer to violent and disturbed communities. Contributors bring analytic expertise to bear on the emotional sequelae to violence, including sexual and physical abuse; to multiple and traumatic loses; and to learning inhibitions. They also explore and devise community responses to the scapegoating of classes and groups, to homelessness, and to variations in family structures. As community consultants and agents of social change, the contributors rely more on active engagement than interpretation, but they retain a psychodynamic orientation to the issues they confront. Within this interventionist, group-focused approach, analytically oriented clinicians function as team members more intent on changing how a group functions than in interpreting its underlying dynamics. Analysts in the Trenches exemplifies the approach in relation to challenging problems on the streets, in the schools, and in the aftermath of war. It provides heartening testimony to the relevance of psychodynamic thinking in the post-9/11 world and will spur professional readers to develop their own programs of community involvement.

The horrific events of 9/11 and its sequelae have reinforced what thoughtful analysts have long known: that they have a responsibilty to respond to the complex social and emotional issues arising in their communities - to function, that is, as community psychoanalysts. Analysts in the Trenches vividly illustrates what socially engaged analysts can offer to violent and disturbed communities. Contributors bring analytic expertise to bear on the emotional sequelae to violence, including sexual and physical abuse; to multiple and traumatic losses; and to learning inhibitions. Thay also explore and devise community responses to the scapegoating of classes and groups, to homelessness, and to variations in family structures. This volume provides heartening testimony to the relevance of psychodynamic thinking in the post-9/11 world and will spur professional readers to develop their own programs of community involvement.