Separation-Individuation Struggles in Adult life: Leaving Home focuses on the developmental task of separating from parents and siblings for individuals and couples who have not been able to resolve these issues earlier in life.
"This highly informative volume extrapolates Margaret Mahler's childhood separation-individuation paradigm to adult psychic development. Addressing major milestones of separation during adulthood and persistent conflicts around separateness, Usher's book becomes a powerful source of enhancing empathy on the part of parents, mentors, and clinicians for those under their care. This is a major achievement and deserves our appreciation and gratitude."-Salman Akhtar, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Supervising and Training Analyst, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia.
"Bridging Intra-psychic, interpersonal and socio-cultural perspectives, this book explores the complexities of separation, loss, and individuation in the context of the twenty-first century. Although self and object constancy are normally achieved antecedent to the Oedipal phase of development, aspects of separation-individuation process continue through the life cycle. Long after the onset of adulthood the internal need for a caring, protective parent persists, with significant influence on cognition, emotion, and behavior. Mental health professionals will find Sarah Usher's book to be very informative, stimulating inquiry and integration."-Harold P. Blum, M.D.
"Usher has produced yet another clinical gem. The down-to-earth charm of her abundant case reports embodies a significant theoretical integration of ego psychology, attachment theory, and self-psychology-without essentializing early development. Mahler's central infant conflict is reconceived as a cyclical life dynamic that also spans the generations. Bridging the gap between psychoanalytic psychotherapy and couples counseling, Usher shows us how to reweave the present with our patients through the dimly known strands of their family histories."-Charles Levin, Ph.D, Director, Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis (Quebec English Branch), Editor-in-chief, Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis.
