Elements of Reparation

Elements of Reparation excavates of psychic violence and the human potential for healing - an undertaking that is at once theoretical, clinical, and existential.

Drawing on object relations theory, existential-phenomenological psychoanalysis, and post-Jungian thought, Brent Potter explores how destructiveness and creativity coexist in the psyche. What has been added is not ornamentation but further descent: two new chapters emerge from the fault lines of collective trauma, spiritual crisis, and cultural fragmentation. There is greater attention given to the sacred - how it appears, how it is defended against, and how it might function as a container for psychic integration. Also addressed is the violence of surveillance, disembodiment, and technocratic flattening that characterizes our historical moment. This new edition offers a return to the wounds with a fuller vocabulary, a steadier hand, and the conviction that reparation is never final, never complete, but always possible.

Elements of Reparation will be of great interest to psychoanalytic clinicians, depth-oriented therapists, and analytic scholars. It will hold appeal for students and scholars of trauma studies, religious studies, political psychology, cultural analysis, existential psychotherapy, post-Jungian theory, spiritual crisis and mental health, and the psychology of violence and healing. It also intersects with the interests of communities seeking integrative responses to trauma, including clergy, chaplains, and professionals in restorative justice and social work settings.