Love the Wild Swan is the culmination of thirty years of clinical and teaching experience, undertaken by child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapist Judith Edwards. Along with new material, the book consists of previously published papers spanning Edwards's entire career, which have been carefully selected to chart the journey that every clinician and human being makes, from babyhood to adult life.

Edwards offers an example of how the evolution of meanings occur and how lifelong learning about the self and the other takes place. The book is divided into four parts, with sections on observation, clinical work, teaching theory, and links between these ideas and ongoing life in the form of the arts, through poetry, film and sculpture.

Love the Wild Swan will be of interest to practitioners and clinicians, as well as appealing to anyone in the field of mental health who wishes to reflect on the nature of human development and growth.

About the Author

Judith Edwards, PhD, MACP, is a former consultant child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapist who has worked at the Tavistock Clinic since the 1980s. She has been internationally published and is a past editor of the Journal of Child Psychotherapy. She edited the collection Being Alive (2001), and is the author of the memoir Pieces of Molly: An Ordinary Life (Karnac, 2014).

Reviews

'Like the Wild Swan glides, Judith Edwards' writing flows, with great elegance. Her wide ranging cultural interests combine with her clinical acumen, to open new ways of thinking. This book is a really interesting read, both for those in the profession, and beyond.' - Irma Brenman Pick, Distinguished Fellow and Child and Adult Psychoanalyst BPAS

'This is a wise and wonderful book of 'twisted tales', beautifully calibrated by reference to personal, clinical and cultural life. Coming to know oneself through Memoir is the solid and steady background of it all - the intensity of trying to expose and explore the self in the course of psychoanalytically based training and teaching across the life cycle, especially during childhood. Judith Edwards' writing offers a breadth and depth of reference that is both accessible and utterly refreshing. Beneath these lovely pages there lies, fundamentally, a focus on meaning - what does something really mean to someone? How does one gain access to that? Sorting it out, significantly through the quality and capacities for observation, both of self and other, makes genuine growth possible. Love the Wild Swan gives us an informed and moving contribution to this process.' - Margot Waddell, Fellow of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, former consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist, and author of 'Inside Lives'.

'Judith Edwards is a Child Psychotherapist with wide-ranging interests and expertise. She has a special gift for appreciating and exploring the interconnections of clinical psychoanalytic practice with the arts.This impressive and scholarly volume includes some original contributions to vital topics within child psychotherapy, including work on the complexities of adoption, and chapters on psychoanalytic observation and theory and the challenges of teaching both in a spirit of enquiry. The breadth of her knowledge of literature,especially poetry, and film makes the section offering readings of individual works of art a pleasure to read. She writes with clarity and grace, which will enable her readers to engage in ideas arising from diverse fields of knowledge and culture with enjoyment. This is a book to open minds in many different directions and to interest many people.' - Margaret Rustin, former Head of Child Psychotherapy Training at the Tavistock Clinic

'The writing of Judith Edwards has an imaginative spontaneity unusual in psychoanalytic papers, reflecting her conviction that the emotional complexities of the consulting room are enriched and clarified by free association to other fields, in particular to the various storytelling modes. Her empathic work with children bears testimony to her self-questioning and her belief in the need for vigilance in keeping theory 'usable' and in a constant state of refreshment.' - Meg Harris Williams, writer and artist

'Like the Wild Swan glides, Judith Edwards' writing flows, with great elegance. Her wide ranging cultural interests combine with her clinical acumen, to open new ways of thinking. This book is a really interesting read, both for those in the profession, and beyond.' - Irma Brenman Pick, Distinguished Fellow and Child and Adult Psychoanalyst BPAS

'This is a wise and wonderful book of 'twisted tales', beautifully calibrated by reference to personal, clinical and cultural life. Coming to know oneself through Memoir is the solid and steady background of it all - the intensity of trying to expose and explore the self in the course of psychoanalytically based training and teaching across the life cycle, especially during childhood. Judith Edwards' writing offers a breadth and depth of reference that is both accessible and utterly refreshing. Beneath these lovely pages there lies, fundamentally, a focus on meaning - what does something really mean to someone? How does one gain access to that? Sorting it out, significantly through the quality and capacities for observation, both of self and other, makes genuine growth possible. Love the Wild Swan gives us an informed and moving contribution to this process.' - Margot Waddell, Fellow of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, former consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist, and author of 'Inside Lives'.

'Judith Edwards is a Child Psychotherapist with wide-ranging interests and expertise. She has a special gift for appreciating and exploring the interconnections of clinical psychoanalytic practice with the arts.This impressive and scholarly volume includes some original contributions to vital topics within child psychotherapy, including work on the complexities of adoption, and chapters on psychoanalytic observation and theory and the challenges of teaching both in a spirit of enquiry. The breadth of her knowledge of literature,especially poetry, and film makes the section offering readings of individual works of art a pleasure to read. She writes with clarity and grace, which will enable her readers to engage in ideas arising from diverse fields of knowledge and culture with enjoyment. This is a book to open minds in many different directions and to interest many people.' - Margaret Rustin, former Head of Child Psychotherapy Training at the Tavistock Clinic

'The writing of Judith Edwards has an imaginative spontaneity unusual in psychoanalytic papers, reflecting her conviction that the emotional complexities of the consulting room are enriched and clarified by free association to other fields, in particular to the various storytelling modes. Her empathic work with children bears testimony to her self-questioning and her belief in the need for vigilance in keeping theory 'usable' and in a constant state of refreshment.' - Meg Harris Williams, writer and artist

Book Information
ISBN 9781138947634
Author Judith Edwards
Format Hardback
Page Count 192
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 408g