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 and 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. Among the themes that recur throughout this collection are the following: When is a patient's bitterness, anger, and psychopathology extreme enough to disqualify her as a candidate for infertility treatment?
Under what circumstances should therapists be legitimately concerned about the well-being of offspring resulting from an assisted pregnancy? How does the clinician's personal diagnosis of infertility influence an ongoing psychodynamic treatment? How can a therapist help patients overcome the overwhelming grief of miscarriage? 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, they examine questions such as: How reproductive medicine programs should handle difficult patients who present with a sense of entitlement. How staff differences within reproductive medicine programs can be constructively addressed and resolved. Why physicians, nurses, and other program personnel experience burnout and what can be done to prevent it. 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.