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It is unusual these days to encounter a psychoanalytic book that speaks both to professionals and to a broader audience; when done well, as this book is, such a presentation is doubly valuable. Although psychoanalytic ideas and findings are meaningful to everyone, and are not the exclusive property and concern of insiders, few analytic works (apart from critiques and histories of the field) have been designed of late for the general educated reader, as was commonly done in earlier generations. I suspect that this shift toward greater insularity is in part due to the pressure of psychoanalytic group attitudes, and that it is therefore relevant to the subject matter of Ethel Person's nuanced, yet very accessible study of the psychology of power and powerlessness. Ever ready to equate popularization with dilution, innovation with deviation, and simplicity with simplification, the culture of psychoanalysis has not been very welcoming or encouraging to writing of this kind, and that is a shame.
As Person tells us in Feeling Strong, and shows by her own example in writing it, “feeling strong” and having a sense of “authentic power” can be precious outcomes of insightfully attained trust in, and appropriate expression of, one's distinctive, even idiosyncratic feelings, strivings, and opinions. A corollary is that conservatism and conformity are not only contrary to the spirit of inquiry so vital to a science; they can also disempower a discipline's practitioners.
To the wider audience, Feeling Strong offers information and wisdom about psychological development, typical conflicts and their solutions, human nature and its inherent difficulties, and the value to be gained from profound self-examination that leads to understanding and acceptance of one's human qualities in the context of a particular endowment and history. Person's clear and straightforward