The Emerging Tradition of Hans Loewald

Book excerpt: Alongside its companion volume, The Legacy and Promise of Hans Loewald, this book addresses the current lack of familiarity with the ideas and life of the eminent psychoanalytic teacher and scholar, Hans Loewald (1906–1993). It provides an account of the evolution of his ideas across different disciplinary fields. Contributors to this volume take a broad look at Loewald’s impact on the fields of sociology, anthropology, and feminism, language development, as well as delving into his work’s significance for the sublimatory potential of religion, music, the arts. This volume shows how Loewald’s thinking about internalization can adapt to our ever-changing social and cultural environment, even offering a Loewaldian lens to understand the contemporary use of psychedelics in mental health treatment. Ultimately, this book demonstrates that, after Loewald – as would have been his wish – for those who read him, psychoanalysis as an approach to mental health can never languish in stasis. Animating this powerful, yet contained and complex man, there are contributions from his family, students, and analysands, and an introduction to the new virtual Loewald Center, making this volume essential reading for any psychoanalyst or psychotherapist working today.