Neville Symington

Neville Symington’s hopeful view of narcissism is linked to his spirituality. Narcissism is rooted in a turning away from that which should be nurturing. Paranoia, projection and self-destructiveness all stem from a quite reasonable rejection by the infant of the demands of the ‘guilty adult’. His clinical examples show how the therapeutic encounter can convert isolating perceptions and affects into genuinely creative and transformative experiences.

Audio lecture – 50 mins

About the Speaker

Neville Symington trained as a Psychoanalyst at the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London. He became Director of the Camden Psychotherapy Unit and later moved to the Tavistock Clinic, where he was Head of the Psychology Discipline in the Adult and Adolescent Departments. In 1986 he migrated to Australia and in the following year became Chairman of the Sydney Institute for Psychoanalysis and in 1999 President of the Australian Psychoanalytical Society, a position he held until 2002.