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The Mystery of Things offers us a collection of sixteen essays by Christopher Bollas, some of which were delivered at psychoanalytic meetings, others published in journals, and still others printed here for the first time. The topics of these essays range from the origins of the therapeutic alliance (chapter 1) to the place and function of the psychoanalyst and the psychoanalytic process (chapter 2 and 3), as well as the metaphors, objects and theoretical discourse that such a process involves (chapters 4, 5 and 6). There are several essays that focus on pathological states, as well as the psychoanalysts’ construction and deconstruction of them in the treatment situation. All in all, this is a book that captures Bollas's love affair with psychoanalysis and evokes the same in the reader.
The clinical chapters are gems. The essay on “Borderline Desire” (chapter 10) explores the passionate attachment to violent and disruptive affects as necessary for deep connection to another. The essay on “Mental Interference” (chapter 8) speaks to the pain of internal dialogue that tortures and constricts the soul. “Dead Mother, Dead Child” (chapter 9) provides us with a heartfelt case example illustrating Andre Green's work on the Dead Mother. Alongside these and other clinical tales are three of my favorite essays, all gentle reminders of our presence in the treatment room. In one of these essays, “The Occasional Madness of the Psychoanalyst” (chapter 12), Bollas underlines the importance of giving ourselves over to the patient's disturbance in order to know it, in situ, and treat it. In another essay, “Embodiment” (chapter 13), Bollas addresses the body as the inevitable residence of the psyche, and the connections and dis-connections that occur between them, at times distorting both. Finally, in “Wording and Telling Sexuality” (chapter 14), a previously published paper, Bollas addresses not only the words that we use to interpret and convey meaning, but our voice as a signifier,