Michael Jacobs

`The importance of Michael Jacobs' book lies in his attempt to convey... Winnicott's profound influence.... Jacobs rightly delights in the creativity and imagination of his subject and illustrates these with numerous quotations and descriptions from Winnicott's writings.... What is conveyed throughout the book is the essence of Winnicott.... [whose] gift was to make psychoanalytic language, methods and concepts more widely available, accepted and appreciated to a nonpsychoanalytic world' - British Psychological Society Counselling Psychology Review One of the best-known British psychoanalysts, D W Winnicott attracts the interest of counsellors and psychotherapists far beyond the strict psychoanalytic tradition in which he was trained. He coined many phrases that have entered the discourse of therapy, such as `good enough mother', `transitional object' and `facilitating environment'. Winnicott has had a profound impact on research into the mother-baby relationship, and his unorthodox manner and sparkling writing style have attracted enthusiastic acclaim. In this book, Michael Jacobs summarizes Winnicott's life and explains his major theoretical concepts. He also rigorously evaluates his practice as a clinician - for example, the holding and management of deeply regressed patients. While highlighting Winnicott's brilliance and creativity, Jacobs is not afraid to scrutinize his contributions more critically. He also discusses criticisms others have made of Winnicott, notably within the psychoanalytic movement. The final chapter assesses the influence of Winnicott's thinking in other countries as well as in Britain.

This classic text demonstrates psychodynamic theory and practices across the counselling process beginning – middle - end. This revised sixth edition includes a new preface, updated further reading sections and a new chapter covering contemporary issues including online working, the application of a social justice and DEI agenda within the field of psychodynamic theory and practice. Counselling in Action is a bestselling series of practical introductions designed for trainees and practitioners. Each book introduces one of the main theoretical approaches and provides a guide to the process of counselling from beginning to end. Covering theory and practice, they are trusted companions for many courses in counselling and psychotherapy and other professions such as nursing, social work and teaching.

This classic text demonstrates psychodynamic theory and practices across the counselling process beginning – middle - end. This revised sixth edition includes a new preface, updated further reading sections and a new chapter covering contemporary issues including online working, the application of a social justice and DEI agenda within the field of psychodynamic theory and practice. Counselling in Action is a bestselling series of practical introductions designed for trainees and practitioners. Each book introduces one of the main theoretical approaches and provides a guide to the process of counselling from beginning to end. Covering theory and practice, they are trusted companions for many courses in counselling and psychotherapy and other professions such as nursing, social work and teaching.

Michael Jacobs is the author of key texts, such as Psychodynamic Counselling in Action and The Presenting Past. Looking back over fifty years’ experience as a therapist and reflecting on some forty years as a supervisor and teacher, he invites you to join him and reflect upon issues uncovered in the therapy room. Therapists are encouraged to engage in reflective practice, thinking through what they are saying and doing, together with presenting their work in supervision in order to engage in fine-tuning their insight and skills. However, it is hard to find the time with so many demands pressing in. Michael presents various situations, phrases and practices which may evade reflection since they are so common in the consulting room, or which may challenge assumptions that easily become habitual in a therapist’s practice. He unpacks apparent conventional phrases, such as ‘How are you?’, ‘Did you see …?’, ‘And …’. He says the unsayable, looks at the place of CPD, questions ‘expertise’, the impact of failure, Freud’s cigars, expectations on the therapist, being a therapist, the value of apologies, letting be, niggles, the vicissitudes of memory, the pointlessness of questions, what therapists miss, hopes, goals, taboos, finishing therapy, money, notes … and many, many more significant possibilities that arise in the course of a week’s regular sessions. This beautiful little book contains space within for your own notes, thoughts, and reflections after each reflection from Michael. This gives you the opportunity to ponder, to savour, to develop or disagree on the ideas you encounter. Take your time, slow down, and allow your thoughts to grow.

“This book is essential reading for anyone interested in learning more about one of the most influential and successful approaches to therapy.” Julia McLeod, Lecturer in Counselling, Abertay University, UK“Every edition of a long established text begs the question – what’s new? Michael and Dawn continue to honour the wisdom and relevance of prior editions with characteristic humour and humility. This touchstone text conveys with clarity the richness of Psychodynamic approaches.” Paul King, Assistant Professor, Guidance Counselling and Education, School of Human Development, Dublin City University, Ireland “A highly respected ‘classic’ text which has been thoroughly revised and extended to reflect the changed and changing landscape of therapeutic practice.” Keith E Walmsley-Smith, visiting Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, Staffordshire University, UKA person's past is ever present, from infancy to old age, and it affects the dynamics of therapy and the therapist-patient relationship. Written by a key founding figure of psychodynamic counselling and now with contributions from pre-eminent researcher, Dawn Freshwater, the bestselling The Presenting Past gives practicing therapists and students keen insight into the subject. The theories of Freud, Winnicott, Klein are now complimented by attachment theory and self-psychology and are organized into three main categories: trust and attachment; authority and autonomy; and concord and challenge. In this new edition, Jacobs and Freshwater give psychodynamic counselling and therapy a truly human face. The connections between theory and practice are highlighted through the use of compelling case examples and end of chapter exercises. Combined with an approachable writing style, this edition is the go-to for busy professionals and trainees. Fully updated to include coverage of the prevalence of social media; debates about gender identity and sexuality; the significance of attachment theory and attachment-based practice and self-psychology and its concentration upon the problems of narcissistic wound, The Presenting Past stays wonderfully readable. The book shows Jacobs at his best and is a testimony to his lifetime of experience. Michael Jacobs and Dawn Freshwater provide a clear modernisation on this classic, best-selling text. Michael Jacobs is one of the pioneers of psychodynamic counselling in Britain. He developed the counselling and psychotherapy programme at the University of Leicester, UK up to his retirement in 2000. Dawn Freshwater is adjunct Professor of Mental Health at the University of Leeds, UK and the University of Western Australia, Australia.

Florians Leben gleicht einer Achterbahnfahrt. In einem Moment l uft f r ihn noch alles super und schon im n chsten Augenblick steht er ohne Job und ohne Frau da. Beim Versuch sein Leben beruflich und privat wieder in geordnete Bahnen zu lenken, muss er schon bald die n chsten Tiefschl ge einstecken. Er f hlt sich vom Schicksal betrogen und wittert dann eine Chance es allen heimzuzahlen, als sich ihm eine unerwartete Gelegenheit bietet. Doch die Dinge laufen nicht ganz so, wie er sich das vorgestellt hat und es offenbaren sich unvorhergesehene menschliche Abgr nde.

Florians Leben gleicht einer Achterbahnfahrt. In einem Moment l uft f r ihn noch alles super und schon im n chsten Augenblick steht er ohne Job und ohne Frau da. Beim Versuch sein Leben beruflich und privat wieder in geordnete Bahnen zu lenken, muss er schon bald die n chsten Tiefschl ge einstecken. Er f hlt sich vom Schicksal betrogen und wittert dann eine Chance es allen heimzuzahlen, als sich ihm eine unerwartete Gelegenheit bietet. Doch die Dinge laufen nicht ganz so, wie er sich das vorgestellt hat und es offenbaren sich unvorhergesehene menschliche Abgr nde.

Knowledge is never static. It is always open to revolutionary thinking or to evolving development. Similarly an individual's knowledge is always moving, and indeed if the ability to think about ideas is lost, an important part of the individual is also lost. In this book, a collection of some of the papers and lectures written by the author over

Drawing upon a vast literature in psychoanalytic journals and either upon Shakespeare's characters themselves or alluding to those characters in the course of other topics, this book discusses eight of Shakespeare's plays and the relationships between the main characters in them. Psychoanalytic and literary approaches sometimes diverge, but they ca

"Jacobs mezcla la emoci n intensa del viaje de aventuras con cuadros de su vida personal, lo que le da a su libro un car cter confesional y novel stico, en especial por todos los seres extraordinarios que conoce a lo largo del r o, algunos de los cuales parecen personajes salidos de un cuento de su querido Gabriel Garc a M rquez". Cess NooteboomUna profunda y emotica reflexi n sobre la p rdida de la memoria... Jacobs muestra su erudici n con facilidad y tiene encuentros divertidos en el camino... Entretenido, conmovedor y enso ador". Sebastian ShakespeareUna mirada evocadora y conmovedora de un enigm tico rinc n del mundo. Todos los relatos de viajes buscan convertir el desplazamiento f sico en una traves a del alma, pero solo los mejores libros lo logran. Este es uno de esos libros". Juan Gabriel V squezTan fascinante y revelador como imaginativo e inventivo. Colombia e Inglaterra, dif cilmente, podr an ser m s distintas, y el libro se extiende en esas diferencias, pero al viajar en el pasado hacia la historia familiar que todos llevamos con nosotros, Jacobs logra, parad jicamente, universalizar su traves a a lo largo de uno de los r os m s grandes de Suram rica. Cautivador y --s -- memorable". Geral Martin

Michael Jacobs is a pioneer in the development of psychodynamic counselling. While his writing is praised for its lucidity in explaining difficult concepts, and it is well illustrated with case examples from his own work, he has rarely said much about his own history as a psychodynamic psychotherapist and counsellor. In this personal account, concerned mainly with both his professional life as a therapist, writer and teacher and with the developments of counselling generally in Britain, in which he has played a major part, Jacobs presents his own past. It is one that surprisingly for so experienced a therapist, started with no formal training, but which has gone on to be an influence on the training of hundreds of counsellors and therapists. Jacobs traces the development of BACP and UKCP and his part in the formation of both organizations, the development of training in counselling in Britain, much of which with regard to psychodynamic counselling was pioneered by him, and finally his writing and teaching career. The book concludes with a critique of the present state of counselling and psychotherapy in Britain today.“A delight to read! Everyone benefits from a lovely memoir like this: students, experienced colleagues, and the author himself. Michael has built a deserved reputation as an outstanding authority and innovator in the counselling field, in practice as well as in training. His restlessness and his challenging nature are still needed as the sense of crisis in depth and relational therapy work intensifies. The account of his experiences, whether entirely fortuitous and haphazard or fuelled by an individuating sense of vocation, will stimulate thought, feeling and a profound questioning of where our field is heading.” Professor Andrew Samuels, Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, UK“This is the moving and revelatory account of the personal and professional evolution of one of Britain’s most prominent pioneering counsellors. In telling his own story, Michael Jacobs also illuminates the development of the counselling movement during the past fifty years and younger readers will discover much to inform and surprise them. This deceptively passionate book inspires and challenges on almost every beautifully written page.” Brian Thorne, Emeritus Professor of Counselling, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK; Co-founder, The Norwich Centre for Personal, Professional and Spiritual Development“Michael Jacobs’s new memoir kept me wide-awake for most of the night, because I simply could not put this book down! Written with consummate story-telling skills, Jacobs has created an inspiring and enthralling portrait of his remarkable career in the fields of psychotherapy and counselling. A true pioneer of mental health in Great Britain, Jacobs has much to teach us all, and I recommend this new volume most heartily!” Professor Brett Kahr, Institute of Medical Psychology, London, and Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Psychotherapy and Mental Health at the Centre for Child Mental Health, London, UK

Michael Jacobs was haunted by Velázquez's enigmatic masterpiece Las Meninas from first encountering it in the Prado as a teenager. In Everything is Happening Jacobs searches for the ultimate significance of the painting by following the trails of associations from each individual character in the picture, as well as his own memories of and relationship to this extraordinary work. From Jacobs' first trip to Spain to the complex politics of Golden Age Madrid, to his meeting with the man who saved Las Meninas during the Spanish Civil war, via Jacobs' experiences of the sunless world of the art history academy, Jacobs' dissolves the barriers between the past and the present, the real and the illusory. Cut short by Jacobs' death in 2014, and completed with an introduction and coda of great sensitivity and insight by his friend and fellow lover of art, the journalist Ed Vulliamy, this visionary, meditative and often very funny book is a passionate, personal manifesto for the liberation of how we look at painting.

Allen and Michelle have been living together for eighteen months. It is the first real relationship for both of them. Michelle thinks they should marry; Allen isn't sure. His hesitancy drives her home to her parents for advice. Michelle's Father isn't aware that it is Allen's mother he has been seeing for the last six months and would now like to get rid of, nor does Michelle's mother know that it is Allen's father she has just spent the night with and would like to see more of. The pieces fall

Running through the heart of Colombia is a river emblematic of the fascination and tragedy of South America, the Magdalena. Considered by some to be the most dangerous place in the world, travellers along the river - for centuries the only route into the vast South American interior - were at the mercy of tropical disease, dangerous animals and precarious barges. A third of the victims of 'la violencia', Colombia's period of civil conflict which began in the 1950s, ended up in its waters. Townships alongside it have experienced some of the worst massacres in South American history. In 2011, Michael Jacobs travelled its whole length to the river's source high up in Andean moorlands controlled by guerrillas. In spellbinding prose, he charts the dangers he negotiated - including a terrifying three day encounter with the FARC - while uncovering the river's history of pioneering explorations, environmental decline and political violence. As Jacobs delves into the history of destruction and decay along the river, he also makes a deeply personal exploration into memory and its loss: not far from the river's banks lies a group of townships with the highest incidence of early onset Alzheimer's in the world. Jacobs reflects on the lives of his father, and his mother - sufferers respectively from Alzheimer's and dementia - as he travels upstream towards what comes to seem like a heartland of mystery, magic and darkness.

"This text is characterised by the insight and authority of practice based evidence rather than being primarily theory applied to practice ... It is also written accessibly, with sometimes difficult psychodynamic concepts rendered into plain but elegant prose ... Convincing case studies are used throughout and summaries helpfully link practice issues with theory." Therapy Today, May 2013"This new edition of The Presenting Past is a wonderfully readable overview of the developmental principles underlying psychodynamic counselling. Theories of Freud, Klein, Bowlby, Winnicott, Kohut and others are organized into three broad developmental themes: trust and attachment; authority and autonomy; and cooperation and competition. It is illuminated with rich clinical examples which bring alive how theory is helpful to understanding clients. Jacobs' lucid, lively style makes the connection between theory and practice clear and accessible. This outstanding book will appeal to established clinicians as well as students training in counselling and psychotherapy." Jan Grant, Associate Professor, Counselling Psychology, Curtin University, Western Australia"Michael Jacobs is a free spirit who roams purposefully in the often contentious world of the rival psychoanalytic traditions." Professor Brian Thorne, Centre for Counselling Studies, University of East Anglia, UK"An original and reliable approach to the development of personality that every therapist and student therapist should possess. Jacobs, one of the founders of psychodynamic therapy and counselling, avoids the twin perils of unimaginative, meaningless causality on the one hand and indifferent, irresponsible reference to fate on the other." Andrew Samuels, Professor of Analytical Psychology, University of Essex, UK"In this fourth edition of what is a seminal text on psychodynamic ways of working, Michael Jacobs has managed to take the reader through the complex and intricate ways of thinking about what it is to be human from a psychodynamic view of the world. This text has been recommended reading for undergraduates that I teach who are studying the world of counselling and helping and it continues to be a text that they draw on when faced with a difficulty in understanding the ideas and concepts of the psychodynamic approach. Michael Jacobs has that rare ability to make complicated ideas and concepts seem understandable and yet leave the reader in no doubt that they are complicated. The use of case material brings the theory to live and mirrors Michael's commitment to practice that is informed by theory. This is a vade mecum and Michael has 'done the job'." Sue Sully, Senior Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy, University of Brighton, UKA person's past is ever present, from infancy to old age, and it affects the dynamics of therapy and the therapist-patient relationship. Written by a key founding figure of psychodynamic counselling and one of most-cited counselling authors in Europe, the bestselling The Presenting Past gives practicing therapists and students keen insight into the subject. The theories of Freud, Winnicott, Klein and attachment theorists are organized into three main categories: trust and attachment; authority and autonomy; and cooperation and competitiveness. In this new edition, Michael Jacobs gives psychodynamic counselling and therapy a truly human face. He brings practice to the forefront in a new three-part structure. This is realized through the swift introduction of the themes in the therapeutic relationship throughout the book, making integration of theory and practice clearer than ever. Looking at what the client presents as troubling them, what the therapist experiences about the client and their relationship in therapy and exploring theories to throw light on these themes now lies firmly at the core of the book. Fully updated with new references, The Presenting Past stays wonderfully readable. The book shows Jacobs at his best and is a testimony to his lifetime of experience.

Provence is a land apart, a territory of outstanding beauty and distinction that has fascinated outsiders since earliest times. It is in its smaller communities that the true Provençal spirit can be found. Hugh Palmer’s radiant photographs and Michael Jacobs’ evocative accounts of the most beautiful villages of Provence opens with the villages of Vaucluse and the Bouches-du-Rhône, then moves east through the Var to the mountains of the Alpine départments and its fortified hill villages, drawing together the special characteristics of the region. In the brilliant sunlight falling across the tightly grouped terracotta roofs and the velvety shade beneath great plane trees in an ancient square, the authors encounter the country of Marcel Pagnol and Jean de Florette, the best-loved of all French provinces. `The photographs of simple churches, fountains, shady squares and cobbled lanes demand leisurely observation … beautiful. Highly recommended for travel and architecture collections’ – Library Journal