Arnold Richards’s psychoanalytic contributions follow the leitmotif of “integrative pluralism”: how to continue the dialogue between the contributors of disparate psychoanalytic schools of thought (i.e., thought collectives) with the larger psychoanalytic knowledge base as it grows and changes with each new contribution. The chapters of the first section of this book show us the evolution of this design.
Although these chapters give us a noticeable trace of this motif, it has taken more then half a century to develop, requiring life experience from the many roles Richards has played and the posts he has held (see Friedman, p.__). He has been editor of The American Psychoanalyst (TAP), Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA), Festschrifts for four prominent psychoanalysts (1986, 1988, 1993, 1994), two additional collections (2001, 2010), and lately International Psychoanalysis.net. He is also the publisher of IPBooks. During this time he has practiced his craft as teacher, supervisor, training analyst, and clinician, along the way contributing over a hundred publications to the psychoanalytic literature. As editor-in-chief of InternationalPsychoanalysis.net, Richards has kept its readers up to date on all things psychoanalytically fit to print.,He has also organized a series of annual conferences bringing together dissimilar points of view around (a) common clinical concerns and (b) major educational and training dilemmas. It has been suggested that he be given the title “omnicompetent editor” (Friedman 2004, p. 13). Throughout these dialogues, as we will see, Richards has attempted to engage those who claim a new orthodoxy and would minimize the overall efforts of psychoanalysis; those who claim new theories, usually untested and unproven, that would replace the old; and those immovably complacent in the status quo.

Psychoanalysis: Critical Conversations: Selected Papers by Arnold D Richards Volume 1

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Richards, Arnold D

Psychology & Counseling

Ipbooks

In Volume 2 of the selected papers of Arnold D. Richards' psychoanalytic contributions, his writings are infused with the notion that the impact of social dimensions is ubiquitous throughout the history and development of psychoanalysis. Each of the five sections of this volume bears witness to the manner in which thought collectives have contributed to and shaped the nature of psychoanalytic theory. Drawing from of the work of Ludwig Fleck, in Chapter 1, we see the application of the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK) as applied to the creation and social transmission of psychoanalytic knowledge. In Chapter 2, Richards turns his attention to the creation of the Freudian thought collective. Chapter 3 informs a perspective on a professional organization and expands the SSK lens as it applies to the trials and troubles of a U.S. psychoanalytic thought collective. Chapter 4 offers a perspective on pluralism, paradigms and politics. The volume concludes with a chapter on the application of SSK to the internal and external organizational dynamics of the operation and management of a professional journal.
In APsaA, there was no organizational support or precedent for cooperation among thought collectives. Richards began to envision a role for JAPA, after the delinkages and the lawsuit, of promoting a higher level of integration, rather than possible fragmentation and implosion. Like Fleck, Richards feels that intellectual competition is important for encouraging scientific progress, and that ideas are transformed as they circulate through different thought collectives. This brought him to the question: "How can a journal strengthen and nurture its thought collective?" This remains an urgent problem in the field's history of fragmentation and schism. Richards affirms that the health of a science depends on free communication within it and its benefits to the world depends largely on its communication beyond its own borders. Volume 2 of the selected papers of Arnold D. Richards closes as it opens. Throughout this his work, he applies the broader bio-psycho- socio/cultural approach of psychoanalytic theory. This approach is not an eclectic common ground perspective, nor even an attempt to structure a total composite psychoanalytic theory. Instead, Richards addresses the social dimensions upon which psychoanalysis was found, built and grew to its modern form. Drawing from of the work of Ludwig Fleck by applying key constructs from the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK), he continuously bears witness to the manner in which "thought collectives" have contributed to and shaped the nature, organization and findings of psychoanalytic theory through history.

Psychoanalysis: Perspectives on Thought Collectives

This book can only hint at the inexhaustible creativity of its author. To be sure, the reader will glimpse the variety of Richards' interest. Arnold Richards has fought for diversity of opinion-where hitherto isolated thinkers and practitioners from far flung analytic schools actually meet and exchange ideas without being distorted as imagined strangers.--Bonnie Litowitz

Psychoanalysts at Work: More Selected Papers of Arnold D. Richards, Volume 3

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Richards, Arnold D. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Richards, Arnold D

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Richards, Arnold D. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Psychoanalysis: Critical Conversations: Selected Papers by Arnold D Richards Volume 1

Psychoanalysis: Perspectives on Thought Collectives

Psychoanalysts at Work: More Selected Papers of Arnold D. Richards, Volume 3