Frozen Dreams: Psychodynamic Dimensions of Infertility and Assisted Reproduction

by Allison Rosen (Editor), Jay Rosen (Editor)

Overview

Wedding up-to-date scientific information to an understanding of the emotional burdens and ethical dilemmas that inhere in reproductive medicine, Frozen Dreams: Psychodynamic Dimensions of Infertility and Assisted Reproduction provides an overview of the psychology of infertility patients and of the evaluative, administrative, and especially psychotherapeutic issues involved in helping them. The contributors to this volume, who include professionals from nationally prestigious reproductive programs as well as psychotherapists who evaluate and work clinically with infertility patients, explore the complex choices about life and death that are the daily experience of infertility specialists. In voices equally authoritative and intimate, psychotherapists and other health professionals explore the therapeutic process with patients and couples struggling with miscarriage, infertility, childlessness, the possibility of adoption, and the promise of assisted pregnancy. And the contributors are equally attentive to the range of issues that challenge physicians and nurses active in reproductive medicine, intent on providing practical information that will aid decision-making in this demanding area of practice.

Written for a large audience of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, researchers, nurses, physicians, and general readers, Frozen Dreams is a fascinating introduction to the human face of reproductive medicine. Filled with intriguing and edifying case histories, it will appeal to all mental health professionals who work with adult patients through their childbearing years. For professionals who work inside the complex world of infertility treatment, Frozen Dreams will quickly become an essential text that is turned to repeatedly for information, guidance, reassurance, and revitalization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781317714460
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/17/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	292
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Allison Rosen, Ph.D., is Supervisor of Psychotherapy, Past President, and Fellow, William Alanson White Institute; Co-Founder of the Fertility Preservation Special Interest Group, American Society of Reproductive Medicine; Medical Advisory Board Member FertileHope; Assistant Editor, Contemporary Psychoanalysis.

Jay Rosen is President, Xint Corp (information technology), and an activist in education and desegregation. 

Table of Contents

Introduction
I. The Psychological Burden of Infertility 
1. Psychological Changes in Infertility Patients - Linda Hammer Burns
II. From the Therapist's Side 
2. Therapist Anxiety about Motivation for Parenthood - Laura Josephs
3. When the Therapist Is Infertile - Nancy Freeman
4. The Therapist's Negative Preconceptions about Infertility Treatment - Linda D. Applegarth
5. Therapist Anger, Despair, Cynicism  - Judith Kottick
6. Riding the Elephant in the Room: How I Use Countertransference in Couples Therapy - Todd Essig
7. From Infertility to Adoption - Ann F. Malav‚
III. Special Circumstances, Special Treatment Challenges 
8, Treating Single Mothers by Choice - Elizabeth A. Grill
9. Miscarriage and Stillbirth - Sharon N. Covington
10. When the Patient Has Experienced Severe Trauma - Robert I. Watson Jr.
11. Extraordinary Circumstances: Termination of Three Pregnancies Conceived with Donated Oocytes - Shelley Lee and Frederick Licciardi
IV. Career Journals 
12. The Nurse's Perspective in a Reproductive Program - Maria Jackson
13. Two Decades as an Infertility Therapist - Dorothy Greenfeld

Editorial Reviews

"Frozen Dreams is the most honest and useful book to date on the subject of the emotional dimensions of infertility and assisted reproductive technology. The book is remarkably jargon free and accessible, and will thus be useful for the general reader and for thoughtful couples who are contemplating reproductive technological intervention, as well as for general mental health professionals. A thorough author and subject index completes this practical, useful volume that will serve as a valuable reference work for its wisdom, guidance, and honesty."
—The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

"...this book is written for a general audience, mental health clinicians of all levels of experience will be engaged by the case discussions, whether or not they work directly with patients who struggle with infertility. For clinicians who do work directly in the field of reproductive medicine or for advanced psychotherapists who have patients undergoing treatment for infertility, Frozen Dreams is a must-read."
—Clinical Social Work Journal

"The book implicitly poses questions about what it means to be a parent and about the implications, if any, of an individual's capacity to procreate....the great strength of this book is in prompting us to think about the ways that the families we make are inextricably bound up with the society we (can) make."
—Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society

"Frozen Dreams" is the most honest and useful book to date on the subject of the emotional dimensions of infertility and assisted reproductive technology. The book is remarkably jargon free and accessible, and will thus be useful for the general reader and for the thoughtful couples who are contemplating reproductive technological intervention, as well as for general mental health professionals. A thorough author and subject index completes this practical, useful volume that will serve as a valuable reference work for its wisdom, guidance, and honesty."

- The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

"[T]his book is written for a general audience, mental health clinicians of all levels of experience will be engaged by the case discussions, whether or not they work directly with patients who struggle with infertility. For clinicians who do work directly in the field of reproductive medicine or for advanced psychotherapists who have patients undergoing treatment for infertility, Frozen Dreams is a must-read."

- Clinical Social Work Journal

From the Publisher