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Interpersonal Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Relevance, Dismissal and Self-Definition is a collection of eight papers by Arthur Feiner, all but one of which have appeared previously in issues of Contemporary Psychoanalysis. Written during the 1990s, these papers represent a culmination of many years of clinical experience and scholarly involvement in the field of psychoanalysis, particularly from within the Interpersonal tradition. In reading this book, one has the experience of driving on a winding mountainous road, stopping every now and then in response to a sign that says “scenic view,” and being enthralled by the scope and clarity afforded by that particular vantage point. With each stop one is enthused to drive even further and higher.
The interpersonal nature of Feiner's thinking is signaled first by the terms “relevance” and “dismissal” in the title. It is through the tension between these two poles of interpersonal experience that “self-definition” takes place. The book is divided into two parts, the first five chapters collected under the heading “The Patient,” and the last three chapters under the heading “The Analyst.” Notwithstanding the division, this is a book written primarily, and refreshingly, from the perspective of the patient. For example, in chapter 3, while describing the analyst's typical handling of a patient's rage, Feiner describes the patient's experience in first person, “We learn to … recognize that our rage is about the past hurt,” and refers to the analyst in third person, “the analyst does not realize we have already tried to do that with our symptomatology” (p. 70). In keeping with this stance, Feiner asserts that the only way to understand patients is to try to look at the world “through their eyeballs.” His own position as an analyst is announced candidly and clearly in the opening sentence of chapter 1: “Much of what I do as a psychoanalyst is marked by severe uncertainty and an embarrassing, slow recognition of my ignorance” (p.