Neurotische Konfliktverarbeitung

Psychoanalysis is undergoing a transformation. Stavros Mentzos hopes that readers will increasingly come to the conviction that the pathological modes of processing conflict—namely, neurotic symptoms, character traits, defense mechanisms, and arrangements—are indeed painful and ultimately unsuccessful solutions, but they often represent admirable ego functions under extremely difficult conditions that should not be dismissed lightly as merely pathological. Especially at a time when the long-overdue, finally open and free discussion about fundamental theoretical and practical questions and problems of psychoanalysis has begun, it seems sensible to make a provisional synthesis in the form of a systematization of neurotic disorders accessible to a broader audience.