This reader brings together a selection of seminal papers by Christopher Bollas. Essays such as "The Fascist State of Mind," "The Structure of Evil," and "The Functions of History" have established his position as one of the most significant cultural critics of our time. Also included are examples o[...]

Basing his view on the object relations theories of the "British School" of psychoanalysis, Christopher Bollas examines the human subject's memories of its earliest experiences (during infancy and childhood) of the object, whether it be mother, father, or self. He explains in well-written and non-te[...]

In Being a Character , Christopher Bollas argued that Freud's vision of the dream process is a model for all unconscious mental experience. In Cracking Up he extends his exploration of the inner world of human experience and suggests that the rhythm of that experience is vital to individual creativi[...]

Hysteria has disappeared from contemporary culture only insofar as it has been subjected to a repression through the popular diagnosis of 'borderline personality disorder'. In Hysteria the distinguished psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas offers an original and illuminating theory of hysteria that weav[...]

In The Evocative Object World Christopher Bollas builds on Freud's account of dream formation, combining it with perceptive clinical, theoretical and cultural insights to show how the psychoanalytical method can provide a rich understanding of what has traditionally been regarded as 'the outside wor[...]

Several thousand years ago Indo-European culture diverged into two ways of thinking; one went West, the other East. Tracing their differences, Christopher Bollas examines how these mentalities are now converging once again, notably in the practice of psychoanalysis. Creating a freely associated comp[...]

Bollas integrates the unique contribution of the British School of Object Relations with the fine texture of problems that have arisen in the author's own clinical practice. It makes the best insights of the object relations approach clearly available.[...]

The main characters of these five plays by Christopher Bollas struggle to survive in a post "Catastrophe" world. As they go about ordinary life it is clear that something insidious has both preceded their existence, coloured it, and is everywhere and nowhere. Like the existential universe of some pl[...]