Book Announcement by Irwin Hirsch, Phillip Blumberg and Robert Watson (USA)
This unique volume brings a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives to the study of sport, highlighting its importance to players and fans alike and exploring how the function and use of sports can be brought into the consulting room.
Given the universality of passionate interest in and active engagement in sports, it is striking that this aspect of human life has received little attention in the literature of psychoanalysis prior to this book. The essays in this Routledge volume co-edited by Hirsch, Blumberg and Watson come largely from psychoanalysts who are themselves avidly involved with sports. It is suggested that intense involvement in sports prioritizes commitment and active engagement over passivity and that such involvement provides an emotionally tinged distraction from the various misfortunes of life. The ups and downs in mood related to athletic victory or defeat often supplant, temporarily, matters in life that may be more personally urgent. Engaging in sports or rooting for teams provides a feeling of community and a sense of identification with like-minded others, even among those who are part of other communities and have sufficient communal identifications.
Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Intense Involvement in Sports features chapters by Christopher Bonovitz, Steven Cooper, Don Grief, Adrienne Harris (whose title, “Baseball’s Bisexuality,” caught this baseball fan’s attention), Irwin Hirsch, Jean Petrucelli and Stephen Seligman, among others. Tennis, basketball, running and many other sports receive attention.
Irwin Hirsch, Ph.D. supervises and/or teaches at the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis; the NYU Postdoctoral Program; the William Alanson White Institute; and the National Institute for the Psychotherapies’ national program. He serves on the editorial boards of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Dialogues and Psychoanalytic Perspectives and is author of 3 books, co-editor of 3 other books and has published over 90 journal articles and book chapters.
Phillip Blumberg, Ph.D. is a faculty member and supervisor at the William Alanson White Institute and Adjunct Associate Professor in the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Robert I. Watson, Jr., Ph.D. Supervising Psychoanalyst, William Alanson White Institute; Faculty, Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University. He is the author of a variety of chapters and journal articles on psychoanalysis, especially focusing on work with dreams.
Irwin Hirsch, Ph.D.
New York, NY
Email Irwin Hirsch
Phillip Blumberg, Ph.D.
New York, NY
Email Philip Blumberg
Robert I. Watson Jr., Ph.D.
New York, NY
Email Robert Watson
