Pathologies of the Self

'This diminutive book packs a powerful punch ... Mollon skilfully manages to bring together the many facets of this subject in a succinct, engaging way... a complex subject, artfully curated and expressed.' -- Sussex Counselling and Psychotherapy News, Spring 2021 Pathologies of the Self draws on almost 45 years of clinical practice to explore the nature and structure of human identity. Collectively, we are trapped in images of self, whether constructed by us, or imposed by others. These illusions are inextricably bound to our sense of who we are, and sometimes defended so fiercely that it leads to narcissistic disturbances and borderline states of mind. In this fascinating book Phil Mollon explores narcissistic phenomena in both the clinic and everyday life, demonstrating the illusory nature of the self, and showing how, beneath our defences, we are all 'borderline'.

Phil Mollon, PhD, is a psychoanalyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society's Institute of Psychoanalysis. He trained in psychotherapy at the Tavistock Clinic, as well as in Clinical Psychology at the University of Leeds, and for 37 years worked full time in the NHS. The limitations of conventional listening and talking forms of therapy led to his ongoing search for a better way of to help emotionally troubled people, exploring both EMDR and then energy psychotherapy, but always with a psychoanalytic lens. He has served as President of the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychotherapy. Pathologies of the Self is his twelfth book.