Acknowledgements

All of the chapters in this book, with the exception of the Introduction and Chapter 8, are modified versions of previously published papers in academic journals over a three-year period, during which time I have focused my attention specifically on thinking and writing about the body – a strong interest of mine that has spanned two decades.

I would like to thank the following journals for their kind permission to reprint parts of the papers that they originally published: International Journal of Psychoanalysis (Chapters 5, 6, 7); Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (Chapters 3, 9); Psychoanalytic Quarterly (Chapter 1); Psychoanalytic Inquiry (Chapter 4); Rivista Italiana di Psicoanalisi (Chapter 2); Organisational & Social Dynamics (Chapter 10). In particular I would like to thank the journal editors and peer reviewers who helped me to articulate my ideas more clearly through their generous feedback as part of the peer review process. Special thanks are due to Dana Birksted-Breen who has taught me a lot about how to write through the way she approaches the peer review process of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and whose own ideas about sexuality and the body have been influential in my thinking.

Although the process of writing can at times feel like an isolating experience, and for me at least this is a necessary part of the process, it is also always a process that relies for its completion on the love, good humour and feedback of those closest to me. I would like to thank in particular my son Matteo for putting up with my preoccupation with this book. I would also like to thank Nicholas Kemp, Susan Levy, Linda Young and Heather Wood for their invaluable feedback and friendship throughout the gestation of this book and beyond. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the inspiring supervision I have had the good fortune to receive over many years from Dr Robin Anderson.