On the Couch A Representative History of the Analytic Couch from Plato to Freud by Nathan Kravis

On the Couch A Representative History of the Analytic Couch from Plato to Freud by Nathan Kravis published by MIT Press is an intelligent  and captivating book. Absorbing, interesting original, enthralling this volume is not only the story of the psychoanalytic couch, a method started by Freud, so that the patient "couldn't see" the psychoanalyst while he was "telling" him his problems in a relaxation state, but it is a cultural and historical trip of the couch starting with Jewish, Greek and Romans and what it meant to them the recumbent posture, in particular when they ate or searched for some relaxation.
The born of another beloved furniture like the sofa in the XIX century, the necessity of portable and invalid furniture because of wars and TB without forgetting  the cultural meaning of the couch, what the couch represents in psychoanalysis and the debate psychoanalysts "live" regarding the couch other thematics of the book like also curiosities involving Freud and his special couch.
This volume is an aesthetic trip through sculptures, pictures, paintings by Canova, Titian, Picasso, Renoir and many other immortal creatives of the past representing women, men on the couch, without forgetting funny cartoons by some New York's magazines.

Wonderful, original, visual book!


Anna Maria Polidori