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Throughout the United States are hundreds of therapists who count themselves lucky to have studied with George Atwood. For over forty years, Atwood held the rare position of being both a defining figure in the field of contemporary psychoanalysis and a professor at a major university. In the former role, Atwood is known as a cofounder of the intersubjective school of psychoanalysis and an authority on the phenomenology of psychotic states. In the latter role, which ended in spring of 2012 when Atwood retired from teaching, Atwood was known as an inspiring speaker who gave students in his packed classes their first taste of contemporary psychoanalytic thought. Atwood's talks interwove moving personal disclosures and dramatic case presentations with erudite commentaries on the philosophical basis and history of psychoanalysis. Lectures with provocative titles like “Is 20th-Century Psychology in the Grip of a Madman?” and “Shattered Worlds/Psychotic States” drew crowds.
Until recently, Atwood's lectures were available only to those of us fortunate enough to have attended his university classes. However, with the publication of Atwood's recent book The Abyss of Madness, this is no longer the case. The Abyss of Madness explores the subjective experiences of extreme psychological states such as psychosis, trauma, and dissociation, drawing richly from material in Atwood's lectures. Although Atwood has presented some of his views in previous publications, The Abyss of Madness is unique in its accessibility and tone.
Like his lectures, Atwood's book is part clinical essay, part literary memoir. Atwood intersperses dramatic clinical vignettes with engaging stories of his life as a clinician and his relationships with friends and mentors. Some of the most arresting tales are about Atwood's own life. In a chapter entitled “What Is a Ghost?” Atwood proposes that ghosts psychologically consist of potential lives that were not lived but continue to influence one's actual life. Atwoo