The Abandonment Neurosis

The Abandonment Neurosis, first published in 1950, was and still is a ground-breaking work. Guex’s research turns on two clinical observations: the frequent occurrence of analysands whose neurotic symptoms are unrecognizable when measured against any of the Freudian diagnostic models, and the relatively large number of these patients who sought help from her, having already undergone thorough classically Freudian treatments with analysts whose abilities were never in question, but whose efforts did nothing to relieve patient suffering.

What all these subjects had in common, Guex observed, were extreme – life-debilitating – feelings of abandonment, insecurity and non-valorization, originally ignited by severe pre-Oedipal trauma. Having described the neurosis of abandonment, Guex goes on to outline every diagnostic tool and treatment methodology, developed over many years, which can be deployed in the successful and lasting eradication of this pervasive neurosis, in a way which seems to achieve the impossible.

Guex’s trailblazing research, however, never received the accolades or attention it deserved; the original publication did not get much beyond the French first edition, so her ideas quickly fell from view; plus the book was never translated into English … until now, which hopefully might just provide the spark and readership that will see justice done.