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Arnold Goldberg's appropriately titled work, The Analysis of Failure: An Investigation of Failed Cases in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, provides a thorough and detailed exploration of the possibility of failure, which many in the field would rather deny exists. Goldberg wades through his data, gained from his own many years of experience and that of his many colleagues, and shines light on the painful reality that at some time there will be some patient whom some therapist cannot help. It is a difficult subject, for as Goldberg puts it, the promise in therapy is akin to the promise of a parent to protect and serve his child, and who among us wants to disappoint our children? This book manages to capture the difficulty of defining failure both at a personal and technical level, while emphasizing the need for future research in this tricky topic.
The Analysis of Failure begins by reminding us that there is a restricted lens through which we, as therapists, judge our efficiency as clinicians. This lens is based not only on pre-determined goals of treatment, but is also largely connected to time and place. As an example, Goldberg offers up the topic of homosexuality. It was not too long ago that homosexuality was viewed as a pathology to be cured. Years ago a