A Psychoanalytic Study of the Wounded Healer: Life Stories, Myth and Reality

A Psychoanalytic Study of the Wounded Healer uses qualitative research to examine the popular myth that therapists are ‘wounded healers’. Rhona M. Fear presents the life stories of seven well-known psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, including Sigmund Freud, John Bowlby and Patrick Casement. Fear uses grounded theory to analyse her research and categorise her results, focusing closely on experiences including trauma in early life, attachment problems, mental disturbance and resistance to authority figures. The book identifies patterns and common themes in the life stories of these leading figures and explains what this research can tell us about the enduring myth of the wounded healer. Accessibly written, A Psychoanalytic Study of the Wounded Healer will be of great interest to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, counsellors, and others in the helping professions.