About Human Goodness: Essays on Emergent Psychoanalytic Literature
By (Author) Glebs Troscenkovs
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Bloomsbury Academic
18th September 2025
United Kingdom
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
Analytical and Jungian psychology
Psychology: emotions
Positive psychology
Hardback
184
Width 152mm, Height 229mm
Human goodness and the associated psychic phenomena are essential trajectories of mental health and well-being, towards which an ethical psychoanalytic work should ultimately strive. This book attempts to bring together the relatively limited and scattered psychoanalytic literature on these phenomena; to synthesize, analyze, and narrate the main ideas of that literature; and to discuss these ideas with personal reflections on each topic. It presents twelve essays, each on a book that related to an aspect of goodness: Kindness, Gentleness, Commitment, Passion, Love, Forgiveness, Happiness, Dignity, Playfulness, Spontaneity, Curiosity, and Faith, with an outro on Gratitude. This book will be of interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, professionals and students in mental health, and, more broadly, to readers in psychology, sociology, philosophy, and other humanitarian sciences.
This is a rich and unusual book, which invites the reader to introspect as well as think along with the author. Its format is unique, yet it is not just a book about books. The author engages the complicated and profound subjectslove, faith, gratitude, etc.of the books he has chosen, in and beyond the consulting room, with his own philosophical eye and clinical ear. He has included writing from many different perspectives and regions. Relevant to experienced clinicians, I also highly recommend it as a teaching text for psychoanalytic candidates, students in the mental health field, and philosophers. -- Jennifer Davids, adult, child and adolescent psychoanalyst; fellow, British Psychoanalytical Society and International Psychoanalytic Association
I warmly recommend About Human Goodness to both professionals and non-professionals seeking to deepen their understanding of salutogenesis (the development of healthy individuals), as opposed to focusing solely on pathogenesis (the development of illnesses). While it includes some professional terminology, the language is not overly technical, making the book accessible even to novice readers.
This book has the potential to inspire every reader to reflect on the virtues that help us feel better and contribute to making the world a better place. The language and presentation perfectly reflect the book's core themes, radiating the author's gentle, loving, and respectful attitude toward both readers and the cited authors. The passion and playfulness of Dr. Glebs Troscenkovs bring the text to life, making it an engaging and inspiring read. Dr. Troscenkovs could very well become a prominent voice in psychoanalytic literature.
Glebs Troscenkovs, MD, is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and psychoanalyst-in-training from Riga, Latvia. He is a full member of Latvian Association of Psychotherapists and a candidate of Estonian-Latvian Psychoanalytical Society and International Psychoanalytical Association. He has published in the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies and the American Journal of Psychoanalysis. His special areas of interest include analyzing psychoanalytic literature and educating psychotherapists.