Working in the Dark

Donald Campbell is a qualified child, adolescent and adult psychoanalyst and a Training Analyst and Supervisor at the British Psychoanalytical Society. He has worked for thirty years as Principal Child and Adult Psychotherapist at the Portman Clinic. Campbell has lectured, taught widely and published papers and chapters on the subjects of suicide, violence, child sexual abuse, adolescence, shame and horror films. Rob Hale trained originally in psychiatry and psychoanalysis and held a research post at St Mary’s Hospital in London where, for five years, he worked closely with people who had attempted suicide. Hale has treated suicidal patients in long-term psychotherapy, and for thirty-five years worked at the Portman Clinic with those who act out in a violent or sexually deviant way.

Introduction 1. Attitudes about suicide over the ages 2. Suicide and Mental Illness 3. Psychoanalytic Interest in Suicide 4. The core complex 5. Suicide Fantasies and the Pre-suicide State of Mind 6. How Learning from the Patient Generates Theory 7. The Role of the Father in a Pre-suicide State 8. Pre-suicide States in Adolescence 9. Implications for the professional 10. Self-mutilation 11. A patient’s account Conclusion