Adelman ’83 Shares Stories to Demystify Psychoanalysis

Anne Adelman ’83 is the co-author (with Karry Malawista and Catherine Anderson) of Wearing My Tutu to Analysis and Other Stories: Learning Psychodynamic Concepts from Life (Columbia University Press), a book that is certain to enliven psychodynamic theory for students, teachers, clinicians, and others eager to learn the ins and outs of practice. The authors share amusing, poignant, and sometimes difficult stories and reflections from their personal and professional lives as they invite readers to explore the complex underpinnings of the profession, along with analytical theory’s esoteric nature.

The vehicle of the story is an integral part of psychodynamic practice so that it becomes a thoroughly appropriate method in this book for illustrating the dynamics of psychoanalysis. Through their narratives, the writers, who are also practicing analysts, show readers how to incorporate psychodynamic concepts into their work and identify common truths at the root of shared experience. Their approach demystifies dense material and the emotional consequences of intimate practice.

Click here to read an except from the book.

Adelman is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst and has taught and supervised in a variety of settings, including the Yale Child Study Center, the George Washington University Psy.D. program, and the Chinese American Psychoanalytic Alliance. She is a faculty member for New Directions at the Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis and maintains a private practice in Chevy Chase, Maryland.