Psychoanalytic Studies

The John J. Burns Library houses rare books and the Boston College Archives. While the collections are particularly strong in the area of Irish history, music, and literature, it has some unique psychoanalytic studies materials. We have highlighted some of these materials here.

William Meissner was the University Professor of Psychoanalysis at Boston College from 1987-2010. He was a prolific writer, and many of his  books  connected psychoanalysis and religious studies.

Meissner's Books

While many of Meissner's works are available at multiple BC Libraries, a few are unique to the to Burns Library. Here is a sampling of what is unique to the Burns Library:

• Foundations for a Psychology of Grace (Burns Stacks Unit Seven BT761.2.M4)
• Psychotherapy & the Paranoid Process (Burns Kenny Cottle Stacks).
• The Borderline Spectrum: Differential Diagnosis & Developmental Issues (Burns Kenny Cottle Stacks)
• Affective Response to Psychoanalytic Death Symbols (Burns Kenny Cottle Stacks)

If you would like to see any of these books, please contact the Burns Library staff.

Meissner's Papers

Meissner published many scholarly papers and journal articles during his career as a psychoanalyst. These papers and articles are available in Messiner's collection at the Burns Library. Here is a sampling of his papers:

• Freud's Methodology (1971)
• Notes on the Psychology of Faith (1976)
• Erikson's Truth: the Search for Ethical Identidy (1970)
• Three Essays Plus Seventy (Meissner's Essays on Freud's Theory of Human Sexuality; 1976)
• Notes on the Psychology of Hope
• Psychoanalysis in the Catholic University

If you would like to see any of these papers, please contact the Burns Library staff.